Star Wars: Destinies Reforged
by Thraus
Summary: What if commander of Alliance was moved into future along with small force of his followers. How will the events change? Crossover SWTOR and movies. Some aspects will be neglected and some will be changed.
1. Chapter 1

Sound of heavy armoured boots echoed through the bridge of battlecruiser hovering in the upper atmosphere of gas giant. The crew worked tirelessly, ignored the figure walking behind their backs and focused on computer screens in front of them. Even though they were all very confused and almost panicking if someone were to watch them they wouldn't know it because all they displayed was aura of professionalism drilled hard into their bodies.

Captain heard footsteps behind her back as he was talking to her second-in-command. She waited until she was certain the footsteps were near her, then she dismissed her first mate and turned around. She saw the man who saved her life on board Darth Marr's destroyer over a year ago.

 _"Ah, commander. It seems that we have a bit of a situation here."_  
 _"I can see that Fora, why do I have the feeling that every time I fly with you, something goes wrong."_ said the recipient with slight chuckle.  
Deciding to ignore the attempt to lighten the mood captain Fora continued  
 _"We were pulled out of hyperspace by our fail-safes right into this gas giant."_ shaking her head she continued.  
 _"We, … I can't figure it out. By all assumptions this system shouldn't be here."_ said staring at the gas giant.

Her commander raised an eyebrow and his hand, clad in armoured gauntlet, thoughtlessly began stroking his beard as he was thinking.  
 _"What do you mean?"_ he inquired.  
 _"According to our calculations we should be halfway between Odessen and Yavin 4, given the time we spent in hyperspace."_ her voice was beginning to show signs of anger.  
 _"Instead, we are here, wherever that is. We can't even match any constellations to our star charts. They are just … wrong." s_ he stopped and calmed herself a little.  
 _"What more, it is not failure of our central computer. Our escorts are in the same situation. Luckily there were no casualties during our exit from hyperspace. Few bruises but nothing serious."_ at least something was going right.

Her commander was dumbfounded by her statement and asked  
 _"What do you mean, the constellations are wrong?"  
"While some patterns are the same, most of them is shifted. Like the stars moved while we were in hyperspace."  
_ said Fora with her shoulders slouched  
 _"Strange."_ was all her commander said, deep in thought. _"Tell me about system, we found ourselves in"_

Now that was something Fora could talk about with certainty, 'Thank the Force the sensors work flawlessly, mostly' she thought.  
She brought up hologram of the system with every bit of data they gathered until now.  
 _"We are currently orbiting fifth planet, a gas giant with plethora of moons. We have also intercepted several transmissions coming from the third planet. But they don't match any frequencies we know."  
_ Commander interrupted her _"What about their encryption, perhaps we could learn a thing or two from them."_

She grimaced _"That is the thing. Most of them are not encrypted at all and those that are have very weak encryption."  
"And their content?" _was question she received.  
 _"Mostly of no use to us. Mainly civilian and commercial traffic. Whatever dating system they use, we have no idea what is it."_ Just as she was about to elaborate she was interrupted.

Sensor officer cried out from his workstation trying to get her attention.  
 _"Captain, sensor contact. Large unidentified vessels dropped out of hyperspace and are forming blockade around the planet."  
"What? On screen, now!" _ordered Fora.  
 _"All hands to battle stations, contact our escort. Have them prepare all fighters to launch, make sure ours are ready to do the same." s_ he added without drawing a breath.  
Communications, weapons, and flight officers responded in chorus _"Yes, sir."_ while fulfilling their tasks. _  
_Lights darkened and red warning lights began flashing along with alarms.

Armoured form of commander moved silently closer towards the strange vessels on screen, studying them. They were large, about two and a half times larger than the retrofitted Harrower-class dreadnought hovering in the gas giant, and three times larger than the four Thranta-class heavy cruisers and two Terminus-class destroyers serving as its escort.

They were circular with large sphere in centre and bank of massive engines on the outer part of hull directly behind pylon connecting the sphere and its ring. Even at distance he could see distinctive barrels of turbolaser batteries scattered along the ring. What he didn't recognize were their marking, along with their design.

 _"What is the delay of what I am seeing?"_ he asked the officer manning the sensor station.  
 _"None commander, we have deployed several probes to have real-time data on the planet."_ answered the officer.  
Commander simply nodded and officer returned to his work.  
 _"Can you relay the communication between the planet and the vessels, if there is any?"_ commander asked.  
 _"Yes commander, relaying now. Channel six."_ answered communication officer.

As the commander was studying the vessels and listening in to communication decrypted in real-time, thanks to the powerful computers of the warship, the captain was busy making sure that her ship and its escorts were ready for the worst. Fighting an enemy you knew nothing about was a foolish notion.

Unbeknownst to them, the blast doors leading from the bridge opened and three more figures entered. The honour guards straightened their backs and gave crisp salute as the figures were moving past them, once they moved on the guards returned to their more relaxed stance.

First figure was wearing completely unremarkable clothes that wouldn't draw attention almost anywhere. But what most people didn't know was that beneath them was very sturdy state-of-the-art armour designed for covert operations. In holster on his hip was dangerously looking blaster pistol and slung over the shoulder and on the back, was powerful sniper rifle. From the work boots, the baggy trousers hiding armoured plates beneath, gloves and white jacked with greenish cloak over its shoulders nothing was remarkable about the figure apart from its build and face. The body was tall and muscular, carrying itself with strength and purpose but at the same time dexterity and stealth. The face was only exposed part of the blue skin, the features were firm and locked in frown as the glowing red eyes scanned the situation, head was adorned by short jet-black hair.

Second figure was wearing robes with colour combination of grey and black. The robes hid any signs of their wearer beneath their heavy cloth and leather. On the shoulders lay large pauldrons stretching to the sides, resembling miniature silhouettes of the Harrower dreadnought. On the belt was single lightsabre swinging slightly along with the movement of the body carrying it. The head, exposed thanks to the removed hood. The skin was red with complex black tattoos covering the feminine face and single row of horns protruding through the black neck-length hair along with single horn on each temple. What was most unsettling about the face were the blue bloodshot eyes with many ruptured veins in the whites of the eyes. The figure carried itself with sense of authority and with dark aura around it.

Last was, clearly tall feminine figure with muscular body build and light fair hair flowing freely over the shoulders. Clad in form-fitting white robes with golden ornamentation and carrying double-bladed lightsabre.

Commander sensed their arrival and turned around to face them with screen behind his back. For moment he switched off his earpiece knowing that the chatter was still monitored by communications officer and several intelligence analysts.

 _"Cipher, Lord Imperious… Kira."_ he greeted the arrivals. _"So glad you could have joined us."  
_ Kira Carsen smiled and was the first one to answer, _"Always my pleasure, darling."_ Putting her hands on her hips and shaking one strand of her fair hair away from her face.

 _"Commander."_ said the Chiss agent, moving past him and taking a close look at the readouts on screen.  
 _"Battlemaster."_ greeted him the Zabrak Sith lord with mischievous grin.

For a while, the commander studied the Sith that was almost grinning at him before he turned and pointed to the screen  
 _"We have somehow found ourselves here. All the constellations are wrong and now it appears we have stumbled into something bigger."_ he said.

 _"Hmm…"_ mused the Sith lord. All mischievousness gone in an instant and scowling in deep thought.  
 _"What do we know about them?"_ asked the rogue agent. Kira was listening intently.

 _"Not much, I am afraid. Only what we have seen and what we have heard."_ answered the Jedi commander.  
 _"The planet is called 'Naboo' and the ships belong to 'Trade Federation'. If it helps then the planetary representatives are mostly humans along with most of populace from what was gathered. The ships are commanded by Nemoidians."_ summarized commander.

 _"Any thoughts?"_ he asked hopefully.  
 _"I haven't heard about neither of them. Thou that doesn't mean much."_ said the Chiss.  
 _"Neither have I."_ added Kira  
 _"I have heard about the planet, but it is supposed to be nothing bigger than small outpost. Nothing about the 'Federation'."_ said the Sith.

 _"You already know more than us then."_ said the Jedi with chuckle.  
 _"I am afraid not. I have simply heard about several ancient artefacts uncovered on remote Republic outpost."_ said the Sith.

Any further discussion was interrupted by one of the intelligence analysts who practically ran up to the group  
 _"Commander, all communication from the planet was cut off. But before that happened we have intercepted single long-range transmission."  
"What did it say?" _asked the Agent  
 _"It was a plea to the senate of the Galactic Republic."_ answered.

This brought joy to hearts of many crew members, even though many of them originated from the Sith Empire before joining the Alliance, knowledge that some part of what they knew was still brought them peace.  
Jedi commander thanked the analyst and dismissed him once confirming that he has no more information.

After a discussion it was agreed that Cipher Agent would slip past the blockade along with pair of slightly homicidal droids, HK-51 and HK-55, to gather as much information as possible. The other would in mean time try to resolve the situation with their star charts.

After nearly a day they succeeded thanks to the input of archaeologist Talos Drellik and discrete visit of HK-51 to one of the navigational computers in Naboo capital city Theed. This allowed the crews of stranded warships to cross reference known worlds in both databases and calculate accurate stellar movement in star charts. That being said and done no one truly believed that they travelled through time while in hyperspace. This disbelief was supported by the fact that engineering teams examined all hyperdrive engines almost piece by piece.

Only positive fact about their situation was that thanks to the upper atmosphere of gas giant and strategic placement of their probes they were undetected by the 'Trade Federation' and likely would be for eternity, not that they were planning to stay there that long.

What was unnerving thou, was the fact that they could not raise any of their allies or other Alliance vessels and bases throughout the galaxy.

By the time single red corvette dropped out of hyperspace two days later and transmitted IFF codes resembling those used by the Republic Navy, everything was running smoothly. Star charts were updated accordingly and Cipher Agent along with HK droids on the ground received support in form of squad of Alliance Intelligence operatives.

When the Jedi Commander and the Sith lord observed the small red corvette enter the blockading flagship both had strong urge to facepalm.  
 _"I will bet that we will never see that ship again."_ said the Sith with disappointed look.  
 _"As much as I hate it I must agree."_ replied the Jedi with his face in his hands.  
Similar belief was shared by all captains, analysts and sensor officers who saw it.

When the ship was destroyed no one was much surprised, but when the ship-to-ship chatter revealed that the ambassadors were two jedi and that they escaped situation changed. Afterwards it changed even more when the blockading ships launched planetary invasion.

Thankfully the ground team was informed in advance and managed to avoid detection. This allowed them to continue in their information gathering work.

HK-55 was putting its stealth field generator to good use when it was shadowing the queen of Naboo and her entourage. Shortly after it received orders to observe and unless directly threatened remain impassive, it witnessed poorly organized rescue conducted by the pair of jedi. Along the way to the hangar it was joined by similarly cloaked HK-51. Both droids were surprised when they weren't detected even by the jedi. Moving softer than a shadow they both boarded Royal yacht.

Jedi Commander was watching sensor readouts closely when he was informed about yacht's launch. He didn't have high hopes about its ability to pass through the blockade. Because of that he ordered captain Fora to move their dreadnought, Voidstar, while their escorts remained hidden in the gas giant. Using two short jumps to conceal their point of origin they jumped right into path of the escaping yacht with it behind them.

* * *

 **Cockpit of the Naboo Royal Spaceship**

 _"Shield generator has been hit."_ Called out pilot and activated repair astromechs.  
Suddenly large wedge-shaped vessel dropped out of hyperspace directly between them and the blockade. Pilots cursed and jerked their ship downwards so that they wouldn't crash into the engines of the unknown ship.  
 _"What? Where did it came from?"_ wondered Obi-Wan out loud.  
 _"Who are they is more pressing question right now, my Padawan."_ put in Qui-Gon.

Before they could wonder more about the origins of the strange vessel, they saw its hull. Heavy armour plates were covering its surface and large number of turbolaser batteries were lined up in lines along the edges. As they flew by they briefly glanced at the ventral hangar with its blast doors firmly shut before they swung over the edge of the ship and were stunned.

While they were avoiding collision with it and flying beneath it, dorsal batteries let loose a destructive barrage on the Trade Federation ships. At the same time, it effortlessly shrugged off the incoming fire with its heavy armouring and impossibly strong shields. As the royal yacht was flying by, the crew noticed that at least two blockading ships were damaged heavily by the unknown vessel. When the yacht cleared the blockade, the crew saw as their saviour winked out of existence and with pseudo motion jumped into hyperspace far too close to the gravity of the planet.

After they jumped into hyperspace the pilots and the jedi were faced with the fact that they would have to land on Tatooine. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon settled in cockpit and reviewed the sensor recordings from their little blockade run. On the main screen was the image of the ship moments before it jumped away. It was taken from almost directly above the ship and it was displayed in all its glory. Next to them was holographic display of what sensors collected. To the surprise of two jedi it was nothing more than outer shell of the ship and even that was distorted as if by some anti-sensor jamming.

At the first glance the ship itself was built purely for combat from the beginning and was not converted afterwards. This raised a lot of questions. Who built it and who was commanding it. Their brief attempts to make sense of it with the force were met with disappointment. More they tried to make sense of it more it confused them. Ship this size would be impossible for any smuggler or pirate to obtain and no planetary force had possession of such warship. What intrigued the pair of jedi most were the two symbols painted in golden colour on the grey hull of the ship. Each on one side. They looked strangely familiar to the jedi yet utterly foreign at the same time.

* * *

Without the knowledge of parties involved, such simple act as helping the yacht to escape, sent massive ripples through the force to be felt by all who could see the force except those at the epicentre. Both the Jedi on Coruscant and the Sith felt it and both found themselves feeling afraid but each for different reason. On Coruscant, deep in the Jedi Archives, buried in the holocron vault, one holocron awoke and was calling though the force, luring its caretakers to it.

* * *

 **Coruscant**

To say that the Nemoidians were terrified by the arrival of strange ship that crippled two of their own vessels and damaged at least one other, was an understatement. When Darth Sidious contacted them, they were all but ready to abandon the blockade and flee. Only because of Sidious' force manipulation they remained as pieces in plan created by his master.

Sidious turned off the holocomunicator and contemplated about the consequences of the event. Before he terminated the connection, he had Nemoidians sent him all their sensor readings. Unlike others he soon recognized the Harrower-class ship and its markings, but that meant he was even more confused about its existence. And to all his knowledge, ship of that class was supposed to have much smaller power output. Especially with the fact that any ship of that class had to be at least three and a half millennia old.

Combined with the disturbance in the Force he felt earlier, he found himself at loss. For the first time in a long time he didn't know how to react. The disturbance in the Force was strong and he was sure that event the pathetic weaklings like the jedi could sense it. It moved like ripples on the pond and it felt terrifyingly powerful. That was confusing him most, because he smelled the stench of the light side of the Force from it. To his knowledge it was impossible for any lightsider to gather that much power. Only the dark side provided the true power. He withdrew to himself, bathing in the dark side and trying to find a way to adjust his plans accordingly.

* * *

 **Bridge of Voidstar, currently orbiting furthermost planet of Naboo system**

 _"Status report."_ ordered captain Fora.  
Station officers consulted their computers and responded with surprising positivity given the fact that Voidstar just went against blockade singlehandedly.

 _"Reactor status."_ further inquired the disbelieving Captain.  
 _"The reactor output currently at 40%, power levels stable."_ replied one of the officers.  
Fora was still not trusting the piece of ancient rakatan technology recovered from the depths of Belsavis, where it powered Eternity vault for millennia. That being said, she could not argue with the energy output of the reactor. With proper energy management the Voidstar was practically fleet-killer.

Question interrupted her thoughts.  
 _"Either our reactor is even better than our esteemed doctor predicted or those ships were critically underpowered. What do you think captain?"_ asked the commander.  
Watching sensor recordings and focusing her attention of shield fluctuations with incoming fire she had to agree. _"Opposing firepower was inflicting much smaller damage to our shields than I anticipated, they haven't dropped below 95,8%. Even with redirection of energy from engines it seems impossible."_

 _"Well at least we are not under-powered this time. Eh, who am I kidding we are still outnumbered and one step behind the enemy."_ said Kira.  
 _"One step at the time Kira."_ replied Jedi Commander.

 _"If you are done bickering. Do we know where did that ugly little ship go?"_ asked the Sith.  
 _"We have calculated their outbound vector to Tatooine."_ replied captain after checking her datapad.

 _"Why would they go there?"_ wondered the Jedi.  
 _"It doesn't make sense. One would think they would rush to Coruscant or Republic Fleet."_ Sith thought out loud.  
 _"I believe I can answer that."_ said captain.

Jedi commander just raised his eyebrows and the Sith turned head to captain who said,  
 _"The yacht has been hit moments before our intervention, it is possible their hyperdrive could be damaged."  
_ Both Jedi and Sith nodded. This explanation seemed possible.

 _"Did you update stellar charts in my ship as well?"_ asked the Jedi, referring to Defender-class light corvette currently parked in Hangar bay 2.  
Captain turned to her second-in-command who checked his datapad and nodded, _"Yes commander."_

Satisfied, the Jedi turned to Kira who read his mind and agreed with him giving him court nod. Behind him he could sense the intentions of Sith. Commander turned to captain and said  
 _"I will take my ship and travel to Tatooine, we can learn much more directly."_ Then he added _"I am leaving the fleet in your care."_

Captain's pupils briefly dilatated by surprise before she snapped to attention and saluted the best she could.  
 _"I will not disappoint you, commander."_ she stated.  
Sensing her worries Jedi put one hand on her shoulder and smiled. Then gave his last orders,  
 _"Stay hidden and gather information, if anything goes wrong just charge in guns blazing, get our people out and bail. Otherwise Cipher knows what to do."_  
Over the communicator came agreement from said Cipher Agent.

 _"Yes, commander."_ said captain. Relieved a bit that she knew what she was supposed to do. Before he left, Jedi briefly turned and added with wink _"If you hit a bigger problem just let Scourge loose."_  
Captain just gulped and over the communicator came sigh. Captain was terrified at prospect of let alone having to talk to former emperor's executioner.

Before they left, Jedi his wife Kira and Sith, they changed from their traditional garments to nondescript clothes. After a while lone Defender rose from the hangar bay and jumped into hyperspace heading for Tatooine.

* * *

 **AN: I have recently made a mistake, played SWTOR and watched Episode I at the same day. Thus i have decided to write it down and put it here. I believe that this mood will hold onto me for quite a while now. So i will continue this bit.**


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER II**

Defender gently touched down in Dune sea on Tatooine. Jedi commander walked slowly down the ramp and looked around. Sith walks down and stands beside him.

 _"_ _Well, I have never thought that I would find myself on this lifeless desert again."_ Sith complains.  
 _"The Force is full of surprises."_ Jedi says.  
 _"Speaking about the Force. Have you felt it?"_ Sith asks.  
 _"Yes, it feels wrong. Wounded, dying, shadow of what it should be."_ Jedi says with his eyes closed.  
 _"Yet, around us and at Voidstar it feels like it should be. Alive, vibrant."_ Jedi adds, opening his eyes.  
 _"Yes, it feels bleak yet at the same time it is trying to heal. Perhaps that is why we are here."_ Sith contemplates.

Suddenly Jedi jerks his head to his left and stares at the dunes in distance. Sith casts her senses outwards searching the entire planet with her mind. She sees everything, the Hutts and their suffering slaves, the Jedi duo and the Queen. Surprisingly she also has a vision of a dark presence, she focuses on that and sees in her mind's eye a Zabrak with tattoos like her own. Then she feels something else, echo. Fleeting spectre, she tries to grasp it but fails, it feels familiar.

Then they are both interrupted by Kira who walks up to them with T7-O1 rolling behind her. She realizes immediately that she disturbed them but the Jedi shrugs.

 _"_ _Ready to go?"_ asks Jedi with a smile.  
 _"Like you even have to ask."_ responds Kira.  
Sith simply nods, takes her lightsabre and hands it to the Jedi, _"Hold onto this for me, would you?"  
_ Jedi is surprised but puts the lightsabre on his belt and asks, _"Any particular reason why?"  
"I have a feeling it would be better for me to hide my nature for now."_ responds Sith and checks her blaster pistol.

 _"_ _Yes, given who we are trying to find. It could end badly."_ agrees the Jedi.  
Then he turns to T7-O1 _"Take care of Defender, keep her safe."_  
T7 gives affirmative chirp and rolls back to the ship, ramp closing behind him.

Kira looks around and wonders _"So how are we going to find them?"  
_ Both Sith and the Jedi answer at the same time _"Mos Eisley"_  
Kira shakes her head and rearranges her question _"So how are we going to get there?"_

Jedi just smiles and points to Sandcrawler moving in the distance, _"Simple, we hitch a ride."  
_ Sith shrugs, _"I was afraid you would say that, hate those little monsters."  
_ Kira simply lowers her shoulders and shakes her head, _"Let's get this over with."_

* * *

 **Mos Eisley**

Qui-Gon walked in the streets and was trying to figure out how could their situation be salvaged when he heard commotion. He turned around and saw that the clumsy gungan got himself into trouble once again. He was about to be hit by Dug when a stranger intervened.

Dugs fist was frozen in air and the stranger said few things to the Dug while gungan was trembling in fear beneath him. After few sentences Dug dropped his fist and returned to his seat the café.

Stranger was helping the gungan to rise when Qui-Gon made his way to them. When he came close he heard the stranger say to Jar Jar _"You should be more careful with your actions, next time you may not be so fortunate."_

 _"_ _I thank you for your intervention, but I would like to know who are you."_ Qui-Gon asked.  
 _"Is that how you thank all those who help you master jedi?"_ replies stranger with his eyebrows rising.  
When he was about to say something to this stranger he notice boy from the shop watching them.

Qui-Gon lowered his voice so he wouldn't be overheard, _"How do you know that?"  
_ Stranger supressed a laugh and replied in lowered voice, _"Please, don't mock me, it is clear as day."_

Qui-Gon studied the stranger carefully, his clothes were unremarkable, dirty and it looked like he crawled through oil spill recently. His two companions were dressed in similar garments. What caught his eye however were two lightsabres clasped to the stranger's belt, one on each side. They were partially hidden by the baggy clothes the stranger wore and that is why he didn't see them at the first look.

With this new knowledge Qui-Gon studied stranger's companions again. One, a Zabrak, carried blaster at her hip and he had similar feeling from her like he did from criminals, smugglers especially. It was something about the way how she stood and looked at him. The second one, human, was different. If he didn't know better he would assume she was a Jedi but the force around her was strange as with the other two. It was shrouded and he couldn't get a clear feeling from them.

All of this took Qui-Gon only few seconds yet the stranger picked up on it _"Do you like what you see?"  
_ This raised his suspicions even more. Before he could decide what to do the stranger looks on the horizon and says _"Well, it seems like the sandstorm is coming. Better find some cover."  
_ Then the stranger turns to his companions and asks _"Cantina?"_  
The Zabrak nods and starts walking away, human smiles and says, _"I thought you'd never ask."  
_ With that she grabs stranger's arm like lover and they both walk away.  
 _"Until next time."_ calls the stranger over his shoulder.

Qui-Gon looks behind him and agrees with the stranger that the sandstorm is coming, fortunately for him soon the boy offers him shelter. After a brief while he accepts and follows the boy thinking about this strange encounter.

* * *

Safely out of sight, behind the corner, Jedi Commander smiles at Kira and drops her hand. Turns around and says _"HK."  
_ Before him appears the form of HK-51 from thin air with ripples of breaking stealth generator field.  
 _"Declaration: Assassination protocols active. Greetings master."_ says the homicidal droid.  
 _"How is your mission going, any problems?"_ asks Jedi.  
 _"Statement: Assignment is progressing without any hindrance master. Shall I delete these troublemakers for you master? Please."_ said the droid hopefully.  
 _"Not yet HK, just keep what you have been doing and watch them. Mission parameters are still in effect."_ Jedi quashed the droids hopes.  
 _"Lamentment: I was hoping for an excuse to use my 'extreme prejudice' protocols master. As you command."_ lamented the droid and vanished.

Jedi was standing still for a while, tracking the droid with his senses. Then he turned, pinched the bridge of his nose and sighted. He smiled at Kira standing nearby and together they went to the nearby cantina searching for their accompanying Sith.  
They found her soon enough. She was sitting in cantina and putting on a very convincing smuggler act. When they entered she was just drinking probably alcoholic beverage with her legs on the table. She saw them and dropped her legs, allowing them to take a seat. Before they did that, they grabbed random drink at the bar in order to blend in. They paid with few Aurodium coins.

They took seats at the table and noticed that other patron avoided their table with some reserve. The Jedi looked at Sith-in-disguise and asked, _"What did you do?"_  
She just shrugged _"Nothing much, just discouraged few attempted suitors."  
_ Both Jedi knew how that kind of conversation would go, decided to leave it be.

 _"_ _So, what do you think about our 'Jedi Master'"_ asked the Jedi with clear sarcasm in his voice.  
He could not understand how someone as blind as this could ever become a Jedi master. To stare directly at the three-well-known force-users and not recognize any of them. Perhaps they were truly in the future. That sent shivers down his spine, he didn't like the questions that came with it.

 _"_ _Arrogant, foolish, blind as … I can't even find appropriate term."_ said Sith between drinks.  
 _"His choice of allies to take with him was interesting. To say the least."_ said Kira, contemplating.  
 _"Yes, why would he take queen to such dangerous place. About that blabbering creature we rather not talk at all."_ said Jedi.  
 _"Agreed."_ replied both Sith and Kira in unison before drinking the rest of their glasses.

 _"_ _I get this feeling that the Force wants me to intervene in that conflict."_ mused the Jedi.  
 _"I sense it too._ " said Kira.  
 _"Dark side of the force is at play here, it permeates every aspect of it. Why, I do not know."_ said Sith.  
 _"Could it be a Sith plot?"_ wondered Kira.  
 _"It may be. That would make a lot of sense. But I still don't see any gain."_ Sith thought out loud.

 _"_ _Question is how we get our 'pathetic Jedi' to let us accompany him."_ asked Sith, mocking Qui-Gon.  
 _"It didn't look like he was jumping at the possibility of us going with him._ " she added.  
Jedi thought for a moment but then his eye caught something.  
 _"He likely needs parts and/or fuel for his ship. The fact that he didn't leave yet tells me he is low on money."_ He said and the Sith agreed.

 _"_ _From what I have heard, there is supposed to be some kind of big-time race in two days."_ continues Jedi.  
 _"Don't tell me, you are going to take part. Are you?"_ sighted Kira, burrowing her face in her hands.  
Jedi just smiled at her and the Sith started grinning like mad when she found out Jedi's trail of thought.  
 _"Qui-Gon will try to use it to his advantage. Perhaps get that boy to race for him."_ said Sith.  
There was a reason why she climbed from the slave pits to the Dark Council. She was calculating and had strong precognition abilities. As such it was incredibly hard to surprise her.  
 _"Problem is, we don't have neither pod racer nor funds to buy one, right now."_ interjected Kira.  
Jedi simply smiled and nodded to nearby Pazaak table.  
 _"But none of us are particularly good at that."_ countered Kira. Sith had to agree that it wasn't her best skill.  
 _"Ah, Kira. You are forgetting one critical thing."_ said Jedi, trying hard not to laugh.  
 _"Yeah, and what is that?"_ asked Kira, crossing her arms on her chest.  
Jedi froze as he was getting up and making his way to gambling table.  
Turned and with stone face said _"Should the opportunity arise. I am fully prepared to cheat my way to victory."  
_ It Kira took a while to process what was said and the Sith did nothing but laugh almost maniacally.

With few Aurodium coins as his entrance bet, the Jedi soon put his force abilities to good use playing Pazaak. But even thou he was winning quite a lot of money, he was very careful that his actions wouldn't raise suspicion. Thus, he deliberately chose to lose few rounds here and there but even with those losses left the table after a few hours considerably richer than before.  
Afterwards things became much easier, finding the racer and convincing him to drop out of race and sell his machine was walk in the park thanks to the Sith's force manipulation.

They decided to spent rest of the next day enjoying themselves in cantina and nearby casino. None of them remembered time when some ancient threat or some imminent doom didn't hang over their heads and were quite thoroughly taking the opportunity presented before them. But their unwinding was interrupted the morning of the day race was to begin. All three of them felt a dark presence descending on Tatooine and they all agreed that this had to be the discussed Sith or his apprentice.

* * *

The day of the race three conspirators were working hard on their gained pod racer. It was representative of the former owner and quite frankly didn't suit their needs. They were throwing away most of the plating and modifying the cockpit. Former owner, Neva Kee, had much smaller stature than Jedi Commander who was going to pilot it instead of him. Fortunately, they all had vast experience in this area thanks to their past.

There was a brief dispute whether the Jedi or Sith would fly and it was resolved only after heated argument about number of eliminated starfighters claimed by both during the war. The fact that it would be more than problematic should Qui-Gon sense the Sith using her abilities was also beneficial to the Jedi.

Jedi was hard at work modifying left engine while Kira and Sith were removing parts of the cockpit when Qui-Gon entered the hangar. They all felt him entering hangar thanks to the force but paid him no heed. He had his head stuck deep inside bowels of the engine but thanks to his force-increased hearing he overheard entire conversation between Qui-Gon and junk trader.

Their earlier assumptions proved correct and he smiled. It would be priceless to see the look on his face when his plane would crumble. He would ask Kira to take a picture.

Second part of the conversation unnerved him a bit. Saving the boy was noble, yet he thought it cruel to separate him from his mother in such way. He glanced at the Sith and thought for a while. So far, she has done nothing extreme, if you ignored the incident in cantina, but he knew she despised slavery. He did too but not in the same way as the former imperial slave. He half-expected her to go on a killing spree when she learned about the Hutt-organized business on Tatooine. He would have to talk to her.

When they finished modifying the pod racer and most importantly practically replacing the cockpit, they went to prepare themselves for the race. Kira and the Sith were walking to pit stop where they would be should something break mid-flight. Before she left the hangar, Jedi saw the Sith make some bet with the repulsive Dug, but he could not question her about it before she left.

He made his way to the starting field where he took Neva's place in the fifth row. He ignored his surroundings in attempt to centre himself and stood up only when he heard his name from the announcer, his real name.

 _"And in the fifth row, replacement for Neva Kee, Thyrus from Brentaal."_

He stood up and waved to audience. The name was his but the planet was not. He didn't know where he came from and didn't care. He knew that the Jedi found him on a refugee ship fleeing Imperial space along with his friend who would one day become the Barsen'thor. He thought of her briefly and wondered what fate she bore after he disappeared to the future. He banished his thoughts and focused only on the race.

He didn't see what Kira and the Sith saw. Qui-Gon had a deep scowl on his face when he realized that they interfered with his plans and quite possibly derailed them completely.

Qui-Gon had nothing left but trust that Anakin would win.

Thyrus settled himself into reconstructed cockpit. He was quite proud of the work they have done with what little time they had. But he still found his pod racer lacking. They boosted its engines and removal of plating helped to reduce its weight. It looked so ugly that there was not even word for that but it would fly ant that is all they wanted from it. He put on the protective goggles and earpiece. When he checked that all systems were working in order and that the engines wouldn't blow any time soon, he contacted Kira.

 _"_ _Check. Check. Do you read me?"_ he said.  
 _"Loud and clear. Everything all right?"_ replied Kira.  
 _"Yes, I see no sign of impending doom so far."_ he joked.  
 _"Good luck. May the Force be with you."_ wished Kira.  
 _"Oh, and one more thing."_ she added.  
 _"Yes, what is it?"_ he asked.  
 _"Don't get yourself killed. Because if you get yourself killed at some backwater planet doing racing I will divorce you."_ said Kira.  
 _"I will certainly try to prevent that."_ he said with a laugh.

Then entered the flagbearers. They didn't have one and didn't regret it. What flag would they bear anyway? Republic? Imperial? Alliance? Those ideas were quickly dismissed as they didn't have any of those flags.

Finally, the repulsive Jabba the Hutt entered the scene. Thyrus had deeply ingrained disliking to Hutts, well except the one who came to his aid and served as his chief scientific adviser. Before he could lose himself in his memories he snapped back. Jabba was about to start the race.

Thyrus channelled the force as he did many times before and lost himself in its glory. Time around him slowed down to nothing more but crawl. He saw Jabba tear off a small creature's head, mull it over in his mouth and then spit it out. Moment it touched big bell he throttled engines to maximum even before the official starting bell sounded. As the bell sounded his engines spinned up and he fired forward.

Before the others reacted to starting bell, he passed fourth row and as they were accelerating he passed the third row. By that moment others have accelerated as well and he sped off along with other racers.

As he entered the first canyon he was informed by the Sith that the young Anakin was still at the start having problems with his engines. Young Anakin set off just as Thyrus cleared the first mesa and entered second canyon.

By the end of first round Thyrus slowly closed the distance between him and Sebulba in leading position. Thyrus flew using only his instincts and the force to guide his actions as he usually did when piloting starfighter. At open flat grounds he had problem. His pod racer was somewhat slower than the others. But this disadvantage was erased in canyons, pillar forests and one cave on the track. There he used his superior reaction times and pod's excellent manoeuvrability to close the distance to leading position.

For most of the last round he was in third position. He was waiting for the right moment and he saw when it came. At the last finishing straight both Sebulba and Anakin entangled their pods which slowed them down and Thyrus closed in on them quickly. Then he activated his ace-in-a-hole.

When modifying the engines of his pod, he and Kira used old military trick. During the war all starfighters had last-dich boosters build into engines. When activated they would supply temporary boost to the starfighter. The idea behind it was a last resort action to get the vessel from tight spot. It was called war-emergency-power.

Thyrus modified the engines with Kira's help so that they had this little feature. But their makeshift modification was not as refined as its military template and would destroy the engines when activated. Now as he was trailing behind two entangled pods he activated it. His engines immediately jerked him forward and he passed the struggling racers on the left side.

He quickly glanced at the readouts. His engines were working at 136,8%. At this rate they would wholly burn out within the next sixty seconds. That was all right. He needed them to work only for the next forty-five seconds or so.

As he expected his right engine started burning out about a hundred meters before he crossed the finish line. Anakin released himself from Sebulba and was closing in fast. But Thyrus still had one engine and he had enough of distance between them. As he crossed the finish line, Anakin was still few dozen meters behind him.

When Thyrus crossed the line, he braked hard and throttled his engines to idle. He was still moving when his left engine completely gave out and its repulsors stopped working. Left side of his pod racer dropped immediately and he skidded to halt. Fortunately, he was slow enough when it happened so he didn't kill himself.

As he was skidding to a halt, Anakin passed him by. But it mattered little, the race was over and Thyrus won. He climbed out of cockpit and shook of the sand that clung to him during the race. He walked away from wreckage and to Kira who walked towards him. She stopped short distance in front of him and put her hands on her hips.  
 _"Didn't I tell you not to kill yourself?"_ she scolded.  
 _"I am still alive."_ he said, acting hurt.  
 _"That you are. Congratulations you have beaten bunch of thugs and a kid."_ said the Sith, sarcastically.  
 _"Thank you for your support."_ Thyrus replied equally sarcastically.

 _"_ _Uh, oh. Watch out, we have incoming."_ warned Kira, looking over Thyrus' shoulder. He turned around and saw slightly angered Qui-Gon approaching.  
 _"This is going to be interesting."_ remarked Thyrus.

He waited until Qui-Gon was directly in front of him. Then he put on his best smile _"Greetings, can I do something for you?"  
"Who are you?"_ demanded Qui-Gon.  
 _"That is a long story. In short, guy who just won this race. If you excuse me, I have a prize to collect."_ Thyrus responded. With that he swiftly walked away to find someone who would give him his winnings.

As much as he wanted to get in on Qui-Gon's good side and find out more about his Jedi Order, he still wanted to gather his prize. It was one of his few failings as a Jedi. He liked the thrill of adrenaline and competition. But he was well aware of it. Like Senya once said, 'When it's time to go to work I am who I need to be. Rest of the time, I am just myself.', he was the same. And right now, he just wanted to be himself, and he could afford it.

As they walked to main tribune, Sith turned to Thyrus _"I have to take care of something, I won't take long."  
_ He nodded and she turned, walking away briskly.

* * *

 **FEW HOURS LATER**

Qui-Gon was racking his brain trying to find a way how to salvage this situation. Handmaiden's constant complaining about the outcome wasn't helping him, nor was Anakin's apologies. The boy had nothing to apologize for, he was excellent pilot but he had no chance against this 'Thyrus', whoever he is.

It was clear he could use the Force, Qui-Gon sensed it clearly during the race. His piloting skills were clearly refined over a long time. Problem was that Qui-Gon didn't see him before. He assumed that this Thyrus was about forty years old. If he went through temple training then Qui-Gon would have had to meet him. There weren't that many Jedi in each generation.

Only positive about the whole mess was the fact that Sebulba didn't win, in that way Watto didn't win either. He could sell the pod racer. That would let him buy parts he needed for hyperdrive. But it wasn't his, it belonged to the boy. Speaking about the boy, this course of action didn't leave him with a choice how to take him to Coruscant.

He was at the terrace of Anakin's house. The rest was inside. He had yet to inform his Padawan about turn of events. He activated his communicator.  
 _QG: "Obi-Wan."  
OW: "Master. Seems like the plan worked. Parts will be installed shortly. I will take care of it."  
QG: "What do you mean?"  
OB: "Didn't you send the parts we needed?"  
_Qui-Gon then heard commotion from the house behind him. He felt the presence of two strangers behind him, in the house. Yet he didn't sense any threat from them.  
He instructed Obi-Wan _"Install them, we have to leave as soon as we can."  
_ He switched off his communicator just as Anakin ran out of the house, teeming with joy.

 _"_ _Anakin, what is it?"_ asked Qui-Gon  
 _"I am free."_ said Anakin joyfully.  
Confused Qui-Gon entered the house. Inside he found 'Thyrus' and the fair-haired human. Anakin's mother, Shmi, was crying with her hands holding her face. Padme looked like she was trying to console her. The blabbering gungan was nowhere to be seen and neither could be any of the droids.

Two strangers were sitting at the other side of the table, both were smiling. Qui-Gon took in entire scene and instantly recognized 'Thyrus' the racer and the same person who saved Jar Jar's life at the café. When Thyrus saw him, he nodded to him in greeting. Woman did the same.

 _"_ _What is going on?"_ Qui-Gon wanted to know.  
 _"They have just freed Anakin and Shmi."_ answered Padme.

 _"_ _Apologies, I am afraid we haven't been properly introduced yet."_ said the man, rising from his chair and extending his hand.  
 _"Thyrus, and this lovely lady here is Kira Carsen."_ he said still holding his hand in the air, nodding in direction of the woman. She simply smiled and nodded at him.  
 _"Qui-Gon Jinn."_ he replied, shaking the man's hand.

 _"_ _Apologies for the mystery act. Couldn't help myself."_ said the man with smile.  
 _"I understand you have a mission and a small problem with hyperdrive."_ said Thyrus.  
This gave Qui-Gon slight fright. His surprise must have projected to his face because Thyrus raised his hands defensively and explained.  
 _"Easy, I am not stalking you. Traders like Watto simply like to talk a lot. You can learn much by simple listening."_ said Thyrus with chuckle.

Qui-Gon still believed that Thyrus was holding something back but was willing to let it pass for now. They talked while Anakin and Shmi gathered what little they possessed. Thyrus said that he was trained by wandering Jedi Master who was trained by similar master before him and he was training Kira. While Qui-Gon didn't believe his story, it was plausible. He agreed to let them travel with them to Coruscant and he would provide them with chance to ask Council to grant them access to Archives. Something Thyrus wanted highly. When asked about the hyperdrive and freeing of two slaves, Thyrus said that Watto needed money and it wasn't hard for him to negotiate relatively low price.

When they set out they were met with third stranger, zabrak woman. Strangely, two blue-skinned twi'leks. He saw them before, then it hit him. Those were the two twi'lek slaves that belonged to Sebulba.

Thyrus walked to the zabrak and soon the two were talking intensely. Qui-Gon tried to overhear what they were talking about but he only caught few words _"…Sebulba... bet… free… crew…"_  
He got the gist of it. Zabrak was indeed a smuggler and she freed the two slaves who were now part of her crew.

They walked back to the group and Thyrus was about to introduce the zabrak when she introduced herself.  
 _"Master Jedi."_ the way she said it, the words could be dripping with venom.  
 _"Qui-Gon Jinn."_ he introduced himself.  
After a moment of silence, she replied, _"Kyrhene, those two are Ann and Tann. My new crew."_

He greeted them and soon they were all on the way. He was intrigued by Thyrus'es reaction to her introduction. As if he expected her to say something else. What buggered him was that when he asked any of them about their past or how they came to Tatooine their answers were vague or otherwise meaningless.

* * *

 **AT THE ROYAL YACHT**

 _"_ _Qui-Gon, sir, wait! I am tired."_ cried out Anakin.  
 _"Everyone drop."_ yelled Qui-Gon and was about to take out his lightsabre.

 _"_ _No, everyone, get to the ship."_ said Thyrus firmly. Then he raised his hands and sent everyone with exception of Kira flying dozen meters to the ship. In meantime Kira sent wave of telekinetic energy towards cloaked figure chasing them on speeder bike. The cloaked figure saw the approaching energy and jumped of the bike that took entire force of the attack, twisting itself into useless bit of scrap.

Thyrus turned to face the figure whose cloak fell during the jump and revealed young zabrak. The same one from Kyrhene's vision. Said Sith-in-disguise was muttering to herself, complaining about the undignified way she was thrown. Thyrus telepathically asked Kira to run and tell them to take off while he would delay the apparent assassin. She did so and ran. With Force she covered the distance in fraction of a second gathering those still lying on the ground and yelling to take off.

Thyrus calmly stood before the assassin, who was surprised by the attack and stood confused.  
 _"I am afraid the queen is unavailable at the moment. Do you have an appointment?"_ toyed Thyrus.  
This drew the assassin from his confusion and he leaped forward with lightsabre in his hand. Red blade ignited itself mid-jump.

Thyrus with his reflexes honed by years of fighting simply sidestepped and hit his attacked in the back with elbow. This angered the zabrak greatly. To be evaded so easily was humiliating to him, he attacked again. But he was evaded yet again. This time Thyrus took two steps back and swung backwards to avoid horizontal cut aimed at his neck. Then he rolled over and stood still two meters from his assailant.

 _"_ _I take it you don't have an appointment then."_ he said. That drove zabrak mad and he hurled himself at Thyrus. But every time he struck, Thyrus evaded easily. To him this was nothing but exercise. The young assassin was skilled but it was evident to him that his lightsabre fighting skills came from nothing more but training droids. While he had no doubts that the assassin would be more than a match for someone like Qui-Gon, to the ancient battlemaster whose skills were honed by countless battles, he posed no threat at the moment.

Behind him he could hear noise of the ship engines gaining new heights, it would take off very soon. It was good, because more Thyrus evaded, more it drew assassin angry and more he lashed out with his strikes. If it were to continue, he would be forced to use his own lightsabre. Before it came to that however, the ship took off and was flying over his head. He smiled, it was time to end this charade.

Zabrak attacked again, this time vertical strike at Thyrus'es centre mass. He stood and then, to the great surprise of zabrak, grabbed the blade with his bare hand. Zabrak's eyes went wide with disbelief. _  
"Until next time."_ said Thyrus before he threw zabrak with the force into nearby dune.  
Then he turned to walk away and disappeared mid-turn, reappearing at the ramp. Phase Walking was so useful that he didn't regret the countless restless nights he spent learning it from Barsen'thor in the slightest.

* * *

With no more problems the yacht set off for Coruscant and no one noticed lone Defender-class corvette following it in distance.

* * *

 **AN: Greetings folks. Here is the next chapter that i still had in my mind and had to get it out in order not to go crazy. Enjoy.**


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER III**

 **NEW AND REVISED!**

* * *

 **CORUSCANT, JEDI TEMPLE**

This was unprecedented. I her long years as Chief Librarian nothing even remotely like this never happened. Madame Jocasta was stunned. Initiate was searching the archives on assignment from her teaching master, when she felt calling. The source of that call was what everyone believed to be nothing more than a trinket, a nice non-functioning piece of junk. It had looks of an ancient holocron, but it was broken and no jedi had succeeded in opening it for as long as anyone could remember. As such it was displayed in the archives on a pedestal as a decoration and not locked in the vault.

Initiate in question said that as she was working at one of the computers, gathering information asked for by her master, she felt it calling to her. She left her workstation and almost in trance walked up to the holocron. Then she touched the smooth surface and with disengaging of the locks it activated itself. Initiate glimpsed brief vision of the past filled with battles, grief, suffering, pain and hope. The images flew too fast for her to make any real sense of it and when it ended she recalled only the emotions left by them and few images of massive space battles, betrayals and sacrifice. This terrified the poor girl greatly and she had to be taken to Halls of Healing and placed under the watchful eye of healers. This in turn created great deal of worry in the high council.

Everyone was perplexed most by the fact that none of the council members, not even master Yoda, could reactivate the holocron. It remained idle no matter what they, or any of the archivists including Madame Jocasta, tried. In the end they had been left with no other choice but to call the Initiate and her overseeing healer before the High Council, with Madame Jocasta overseeing the whole process.

Councillors were debating the what could this strange occurrence mean when the duo arrived. The Initiate, Etain Tur-Mukan, entered the council chambers with her worried healer by her side. She was clearly not in her skin. While the vision was brief, it left its impact on the unprepared girl. She did not like the idea that she would have to open the holocron again. The mere idea of it caused her great distress that could be easily felt by the masters present.

 _"We asked you to come, you know why, don't you, hmm?"_ said grandmaster Yoda.  
 _"Yes, master."_ said Etain with her head hung low.  
 _"Afraid, do not be. Nothing wrong, you have done."_ said the ancient Jedi, hopping to stand beside Etain.  
 _"Now, do as before and open this holocron for us, will you?"_ Yoda continued and smiled at her.

She nodded and, with silent encouragement from grandmaster, walked to the middle of room where the holocron in question floated in repulsor field. She gathered what little courage she had, closed her eyes shut and tentatively touched the holocron. Nothing happened, no visions, nothing. It simply continued floating and gently rolling around. She opened her eyes and tried again. This time she concentrated hard and placed her hand on the holocron once more. After few seconds it whirred, came to life and started rotating. She quickly withdrew her hand and took two steps back. After few seconds the holocron stopped its rotation and it started emitting faint hologram.

It was far too weak for anyone to see anything. Madame Jocasta muttered something about it being broken and being of no-use, but she was silenced by the nearest master. Master Windu simply lowered the shades on windows with the force and the hologram became easier to see. But it was still far too faint. Suddenly, holocron sparked and with flash of light the hologram became clear and strong.

Before the Council stood life-size projection of Mirialan woman approximately in her thirties. The projection made her look like she was standing before them in flesh. She was not dressed in traditional Jedi robes. Instead she wore what appeared to be armoured pants and boots, along with gauntlets that reached to and covered her elbows. Her armour was white with spots of brown, as if she stepped into can of paint and never bothered to remove the splashes. On her upper body, she wore tattered robes falling from her shoulders and reaching to the ground. Her chest appeared to be covered in form of leather armour weaved into the robes.

She was average height, not tall but not small either. It was all anyone could say about her figure because any other observation was obscured by her loose or armoured clothing. She had long dark-brown hair gathered into strange hairstyle and interwoven in braids on back of her head, two braids were flowing freely down the sides of her temples. She had calming blue eyes and complex ritualistic tattoos on her gentle face. The geometrical lines and squares centred on bridge of her nose and stretched over her cheeks and forehead along with another on her chin, mirrored on both sides. Their complexity would make any mirialan jealous.

She stood with the holocron behind her, facing and looking at Etain who activated the holocron. Projection bowed deeply to Etain and stated, _"I am the Gatekeeper of this holocron and I guard the knowledge stored here. What are you searching for, seeker."_

Everyone in the room was breathless. None of them have ever seen a holocron like this, not even master Yoda. Before anyone could say anything, Etain, surprised that the holocron talked to her, asked:  
 _"Who are you?"  
_ Gatekeeper stopped bowing and stood up. _"I am imprint of a mind, that once belonged to Jedi who stored her life's memories and teachings into this holocron."_

 _"Who was she?"_ asked master Windu. Gatekeeper looked at Etain, as if wanting to know whether to answer or not, Etain nodded not sure what she was supposed to do.  
Projection shifted her footing slightly and proudly introduced herself, _"I am imprint of Barsen'thor, Warden of the Order. Keeper of Truth and Master of the Hidden Knowledge."_

This intrigued the High Council and Madame Jocasta greatly, they have never heard about any of those titles. At first Madame Jocasta thought this holocron to be few hundred years old, perhaps from the time of Rusaan Reformations, but now she wasn't so sure. It was recovered by accident on Chandrilla, decades ago. Jocasta became hopeful, this holocron could help up with the lack of data preceding the Reformations.

 _"When live did you, hmm?"_ asked Yoda.  
Projection looked down at him and replied, _"I was born approximately nine years before the Treaty of Coruscant. That is… according to the internal mechanism of this holocron about 3 630 years ago."_

As of now, Madame Jocasta was gleaming with joy. A holocron so old could shed light on the titbits of information they still possessed. Perhaps help them sort out the truth from centuries of speculations and misinterpretations. Archives were lacking greatly when it came to knowledge stretching that far back. Most of it was either destroyed, lost or corrupted after years. How much could data could she gain from it and even better still, it may confirm her own archaeological theories. Madame Jocasta decided in that moment that she needed the access to the knowledge within. The past of Jedi and the Republic could be enlighted in much clearer detail than before.

 _"Impossible, after all these years…"_ Madame Jocasta sighted before she was shushed by master Yoda. The Gatekeeper watched them with detachment and distance. _"This is not the Jedi Temple on Tython, where are we?"_ inquired Gatekeeper.

 _"Tython? We know not of world by that name. This is the Jedi Temple, it has been our home for over a millenia."_ said master Galia.  
 _"Tython is one of the speculated birthplaces of the Jedi."_ Madame Jocasta explained swiftly.  
 _"Tython is the ancestral homeworld of the Jedi."_ deadpanned Gatekeeper.  
 _"Jedi homeworld?"_ asked Etain, her voice laced with amazement. What would she give to see such world.  
 _"Yes, where the Jedi first came to be and where the Jedi train their most promising students."_ replied Gatekeeper to her in slightly friendlier tone than to others.  
With that holocron projected image beautiful planet with forests and oceans. Then it briefly shown the Jedi temple. It must have been a memory because of the angle and the way image moved. It felt like looking through the stranger's eyes.

 _"Where is this world?"_ asked master Windu. Gatekeeper stopped showing memories and studied the gathering closely. For a while it remained silent. Then it said, _"That world is dangerous and full of surprises. I am not sure anyone could survive without a guide."_

 _"Grandmaster of the Order I am, survive I will."_ said Yoda and knocked the floor with his walking stick.

 _"Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to tell you. All hyperspace routes known to me and its own location would be different, thanks to the stellar movement."_ Gatekeeper explains.  
 _"Why would that be?"_ asked Yoda, disappointed.  
 _"The region of space around the planet is volatile and constantly shifting. The hyperline known to me would lead to the heart of black hole, at best."_ says Gatekeeper with the shrug.

 _"Pity, we could have learned so much from such place."_ sighs Madame Jocasta.  
 _"Some secrets are better left to rest."_ says Gatekeeper.

Council can see that they will not be able to get the location of Tython from the holocron's Gatekeeper decide to direct their attention elsewhere.

 _"Tell us about the Sith, can you?"_ asks master Yoda.  
Gatekeeper is silent for a while and looks at the assembled councillors.  
 _"Yes, why you ask such question?"_ inquires Gatekeeper.  
 _"We have our reasons."_ replies master Windu.

 _"Very well. The Sith are descendants of ancient Jedi banished by the Order for their fall to the dark side. After years of traveling they encountered the Sith species on their homeworld. As the years passed they became rulers of the word and the two became one."_ explained Gatekeeper.

 _"We didn't ask for history lesson."_ retorts master Koth.  
 _"I will not divulge years of my knowledge of the dark side. To anyone."_ states Gatekeeper firmly.

Council wasn't obviously very happy with its attitude, but they still wanted to know more. Especially because it couldn't be coincidence that the holocron activated itself a short while after the strongest disturbance in the force they have ever felt.

 _"Can you tell us about your past?"_ asked Etain, curious. Then she realized that she should have left that to the council. But when she looked she saw master Yoda smile at her. This eased her worries.  
 _"Better still, open your minds and I can show you."_ said the Gatekeeper with pleasant smile and raising her hands as if offering a gift.

Council did so a bit reluctantly along with Madame Jocasta. Etain found herself wanting to see what the ancient Jedi saw before her. When they opened their minds in meditation they found themselves on the surface of Tython in the skin of Barsen'thor herself, walking down the ramp of unfamiliar shuttle. They were seeing her memories along with narration provided by Gatekeeper.

This went on for several hours until the council has decided they saw enough. Time in meditation flew faster. In but a few hours, they witnessed the entire misadventures of the ancient Jedi on Tython and her flight to Coruscant, along with the ambush of the ship carrying her from the staging area of the Republic Fleet to Coruscant. Etain was disappointed, she wanted to see more, it was fascinating. ( **AN: Consular Tython story arc and Esseles Flashpoint.)**

The council had several difficulties coming to terms with the information they gained from the holocron. They mostly had problem with the approach to training. From the council's point of view, they showed blatant disregard to the pull of the dark side. But their short trip to the distant past of the Order would have several consequences. The biggest one would be the memory of two faces they have seen. One belonging to human woman who stood behind togrutan Jedi high councillor. And the face of young Jedi Guardian who travelled and fought side by side with the Barsen'thor on the transport to Coruscant.

* * *

 **ROYAL YACHT, CORUSCANT LANDING PAD**

To say that the flight to Coruscant from Tatooine was uneventful was not fitting enough. Both the Jedi duo and the queen with her entourage gave the three time-stranglers more than enough space. One could even go as far and say they avoided them. Yeah, they were grateful for the rescue and the help provided but didn't trust them. This didn't pose a problem for them and their information gathering. Both Kira and Thyrus could enhance their senses with the Force and thanks to that overhear every conversation on the ship. People tended to talk a lot when they thought they couldn't be overheard.

As for Kyrhene, she was okay with being left undisturbed and spend the entire journey talking to her newest followers. Thyrus and Kira chatted with them too for a while and were quite certain that the two twi'leks radiated cordial feelings for them. With the knowledge that the two HK-series droids were gathering information and that the Force would tell them something was going to happen, the trio spent the journey chatting. For a brief while they talked to Anakin and his mother also, until Qui-Gon came and under some pretence took them away.

Thyrus didn't think much of it. In his place, he would act the same way. From Qui-Gon's point of view Thyrus presented an enigma and a dangerous one at that. Qui-Gon didn't buy his cover story one bit. He said to him that he was roaming jedi, trained by roaming master and so on. There were such jedi in his time, so it was safe bet to assume that there were jedi like this in this time also. When he thought about it, it wasn't unexpected that Qui-Gon didn't trust him. Frankly, Thyrus would be surprised if he were to believe the story. Even a nascent force-user could sense the difference between truth and lie, no matter how hard you tried to hide it. Thyrus was certain that he managed to muddle and cover his lie enough, but one could never be too sure.

Because of this mistrust, they chose to wait in the ship and didn't disembark with others. When they walked down the ramp, the impromptu gathering was gone. The queen and the supreme chancellor in their speeders were nothing more than two specs in the distance. The boy and the mother were gone too, 'Strange, I thought they would be taken to the temple', thought Thyrus. In the end it didn't matter, the boy was unimportant, for now. Thyrus knew that the queen was still followed by one of the HK droids so didn't feel the need to watch her personally. He also sensed the other droid, HK-55, shadowing him.

Unknowingly this allowed Palpatine to maintain his disguise. As good as he was, he wouldn't stand a chance against Darth Imperius when it came to playing hide and seek. It also prevented Thyrus from seeing how dependant became the Jedi on politicians.

On the landing pad they saw Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan waiting for them.

 _"You have certainly taken your time."_ quipped Qui-Gon.  
 _"Didn't have anything for the queen, so we have decided to let them go unbothered by us."_ replied Thyrus with a smile.  
 _"Hm, I can see your reasoning."_ said Qui-Gon after few moments. Then he motioned to the waiting speeder.  
 _"Come, we will take you to the temple"_ stated Qui-Gon and went to the speeder.  
 _"Ah, finally. I can't wait."_ said Thyrus and set to follow Qui-Gon

Thyrus and his companions boarded the speeder and headed for the Jedi Temple. Kyrhene was still closely tailed by the two twi'leks. They were still wearing their revealing slave outfits, but they were given Kira's and Kyrhene's jacket for warmth and cover. Thyrus noted that he would have to get Kyrhene to get them something better to wear.

When they arrived at the Temple, Thyrus and the others tried to be as polite and unthreatening as possible. It didn't help a lot, since the moment they arrived they were practically put under house arrest. Quartet of Jedi Temple Guards, at least Thyrus thought they were, escorted them to some living quarters and left them there. They were told that the high council would want to see them soon and until then they were to stay where they were.

'Qui-Gon held his word and we are in the Temple. Now, how will the high council react.' Thyrus thought to himself as he changed his clothes. They were given a clean set of Jedi robes. It looked like the latest in Jedi fashion. Thyrus didn't mind that much, but Kira had different opinion. She was used to the old paradigm of 'As long as it is nothing too ridiculous, wear what you want' when it came to the Jedi clothes. She didn't like the ones given to her in the slightest.

He briefly wondered what Kyrhene was up to. He had been ushered into room with Kira while she was in room with the twi'leks. 'Well, can't be anything that bad, otherwise I would have heard some commotion by now' he thought as he crashed into bed. He really didn't want to make mess in this room, it was clear that it belonged to someone, but the bed was only piece of furniture where he could rest, apart from few uncomfortable looking chairs.

He still had his undercover non-descript datapad, doesn't look like much but the cramped insides are high-tech. The guards didn't take their stuff, a mistake. Thanks to their oversight, Thyrus was soon browsing the Temple Archives remotely. Security wasn't anything top notch, to him it looked like they made no progress when it came to technology over the last few millennia. Troubling. There were still the same old encryption algorithms, albeit simpler. With the knowledge of encryption keys of the past, it took him only three minutes to gain access to the temple network, from there another minute to get into archives. Their records are lacking, about his time there is nothing more than few studies and little recorded history about the big galactic events, nothing too detailed. Much of it is distorted. Further in past he goes the worse it is. Seeing that it would lead nowhere, he tries to find as much as he can about the high council.

Kira walked up to him and raised an eyebrow. Thyrus shifted and she lay down next to him and rested her head against his shoulder.  
 _"Tired my dear?"_ he asked as he was browsing the archives on datapad.  
 _"Just relaxing."_ she breathed out and closed her eyes.  
He stopped browsing and took a long look at her. She seemed remarkably content, given the circumstances.  
As if feeling his gaze, she opened her eyes and looked up into his.  
 _"What is it? Lost something?"_ she asked playfully. Her hand moving in circles on his chest.  
 _"Nothing, just wondering that you take this whole mess rather well."_ he says, looking back into her eyes.  
 _"Oh..."_ she voices.  
 _"I mean, no snarky comments so far and no witty remarks. I may have to find Doc."_ he joked.  
 _"You wouldn't dare!"_ she raises her voice and punches him in the arm with a giggle. He returns in and soon they find themselves in a mock brawl on the bed, she is giggling out loud.

As if on cue, the door opens and one of their guards enters. The look on his face is priceless, at the same time ashamed and clueless as what to do. Thyrus and Kira stand up and straighten their robes. Thyrus pockets his data pad and they listen to the guard. They are told that the high council is expecting them and then follow the guard to the hallway. There they meet up with Kyrhene coming from her room with her guard trailing behind her.

The journey is short and quiet one. They are led to the antechamber and told to wait. The guard enters the council chamber itself and after a while they are called in. The guard was no doubt telling the council about his horrifying discovery of two adults having a mock fight on the bed.

When they enter, Thyrus takes in the looks of the chamber. Spacious and open, no furniture save for the twelve chairs for the councillors themselves, looks like they would have to stand. He needed to sell his cover.  
'Okay, here goes nothing.' he thinks to himself and immediately receives support from Kira over their Force bond.

He gets into the role of roaming Jedi from the outer rim. A bit of accent into his voice to help sell his cover. 'Perhaps, if my Jedi carreer comes to an end I might become an actor' he thinks for a while before he begins.  
 _"Masters. I am honoured."_ Thyrus begins his act.  
 _"Master Qui-Gon, about your request, informed us."_ said Yoda.  
 _"But, before we decide about your access to the Archive, we would like to know more about you."_ informs him master Plo Koon  
 _"Not unsurprising. What would you like to know?"_ Thyrus asks.

For a while he is trying to sell his cover story about being trained on the move and living on the ships after being taken in by his master. That he had taken on Kira like his master did with him. He is following Cipher's advice about lying to force-users: Use as much truth as you can, it makes it more believable. After about ten minutes he catches it. The questions about details, repeated ones and little bodily movements. The hints are there and Thyrus is certain. 'Well, that was lesson in futility.' he thinks with a disappointment.

He stops mid-sentence, he was talking about losing their ship. Drops his act, straightens his stands and stops faking the accent, returning to his native tythonian one slightly laced by Mandalorian. Sighs and asks, _"How long?"_

 _"How long, what?"_ asks Yoda with a smirk. The change isn't lost on him.  
 _"How long I am wasting my time here?"_ Thyrus asks slightly irritated.  
Few masters are confused, their aura in the Force giving it away. To Thyrus it is clear as day, except with Yoda. That one is shielded. Granted, Thyrus wasn't looking for it but still. He ends his charade completely, but he is still supressing his presence in the Force. He was doing that since they touched down on Tatooine.

 _"Not long, a while after you came, I found out."_ smiles Yoda.  
 _"How, you are not that old. I don't really think that you just go and look at the faces of long-gone Jedi"_ asks Thyrus with his eyes half closed. The other masters noticed the change too, they are cautious.  
 _"I am afraid I do not understand master Yoda."_ asks master Gallia  
 _"Something to tell us, he has."_ says Yoda.

 _"I guess this leaves us only a few options."_ states Kira, looking at Thyrus. He nods.  
 _"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."_ says Thyrus, his hand stroking his left temple.  
 _"Believe, I already do."_ says Yoda. The rest of the council watches from side-lines.

 _"Fine."_ breathes out Thyrus and draws in deep breath. Behind him, Kyrhene shrugs.  
 _"I am chronologically 3632 years old Jedi Battlemaster who just happened to find himself here along with few of my trusted allies."_ says Thyrus in single breath. 'Whoa, it's out. Now for reactions.' he thinks.  
 _"This is my former padawan, Kira Carsen, and my companion, Kyrhene._  
Most of them are astonished, but he can see that few of them aren't. The masters in question are Yoda, Yaddle and Plo Koon. 'I should remember that.' he notes to himself.

 _"You think we would believe that?"_ asks master Windu, clearly not convinced.  
 _"The holocron of yours. That should be all the proof you need."_ Thyrus shrugs.  
 _"How do you know about that?"_ inquires Windu once more, clearly suspicious.  
 _"Bring the holocron we will. See, we shall."_ Yoda ends the discussion before anyone can say anything.  
 _"We will need a blood sample from all of you."_ adds master Koth.  
Thyrus looks at Kira and Kyrhene. The former shrugs and the latter raises and eyebrow.  
 _"I don't see any reason why not."_ answers Kyrhus. They promptly take the samples and send them to the Temple Labs. Then the council calls in Chief Librarian with the holocron and the Initiate.

For a while he answers basic questions about him. Few of them are:  
 _"Who is he?" "Battlemaster of the Jedi, Fleet Admiral of the Republic"_  
 _"How old is he, biologically?" "36"  
"Name?" "Thyrus"  
"How about surname." "unkown, Carsen trough marriage"  
"He is married?" "Yes, to Kira"_

Chief Librarian, Madame Jocasta, with the holocron and Initiate Tur-Mukan arrive quickly and he is glad to have the little questions and answers session over. Thyrus briefly wonders why the council needs the girl. He realizes it the moment she moves to open the holocron. For whatever reason they can't open it, only she can. 'Uh, interesting.' he notes to himself.

Then he saw it. Madame Jocasta is about to set the holocron in the repulsor field. He knows that holocron, he saw it before. He subconsciously reaches out and calls the holocron to himself.  
 _"Whoa, what the…"_ curses Madame Jocasta, startled by the sudden movement of the holocron. Everyone else is just as surprised to see it happen.

 _"Let it go, it is ancient and fragile."_ says Madame Jocasta, trying to take it back.  
 _"Ancient, yes. Fragile, no."_ replies Thyrus, deep in thought, not really paying attention. He moves a bit and puts the holocron out of her reach.  
He channels the Force into it and the form of his old friend appears. Her projection springs to life. Everyone in the room watches breathlessly. Etain is overruled by curiosity and watches with eyes wide open. Madame Jocasta takes a few steps back.

He sighted, breathed out and greeted the holocron projection, _"Old friend, it has been a while."  
_ Gatekeeper put on a warm smile and walked up to Thyrus, _"Indeed it has. Thou I suspect for me it has been far longer than for you."_

Council watched as the Gatekeeper put one hand on his chest and they both closed their eyes. What the council didn't see was conversation that followed.

 _"You have gotten yourself into quite the mess, again."_ says the imprint of his friend with smile.  
 _"You know me too well."_ he answers, pain in his voice. Thyrus looks around and takes in the place. They both stand on white perfectly flat ground. There is nothing as far as eye can see, just simple emptiness.  
 _"I miss your company right now. You have always been the more diplomatic one. I prefer more straightforward approach. This word-game is not my cup of tea."_ admits Thyrus.  
She laughs, it is refreshing to hear that, and it brings a bit of peace into his torn soul.  
 _"You sell yourself short, as always."_ she replies with a smile, still chuckling.

 _"What happened after I disappeared?"_ asks Thyrus, he needs to know.  
 _"Some left, others stayed. Most stayed, they had changed too much and had nowhere else to go."_ replies his friend with unfocused look in her eyes.  
 _"After a while, we have found out what happened. Me, Sana Rae even Senya."_ explains his friend.  
 _"But, that is a story for another time. For now, you must convince the council to let you go and heed my warning."_ she says firmly, her gaze moves back to him.  
 _"Force chose you for a reason, I may have my theories but even I don't know why. But I know what can happen, if you don't stop it."_ she warns him.

She shows him her vision of the future. Countless worlds devastated by the hand of a madman. Civilizations burned away in fiery storms and in the end, ashes raining on lifeless worlds  
When the vision ends she gives him her farewell and disappears. With blink of an eye he is back in the high council chamber on Coruscant. Only a few seconds after the conversation began.

Only thing the council could see was series of emotions rapidly shifting through his face. In the beginning it was the pained expression of loss, in the end it was replaced by mask of unbreakable resolve. Next to him, Kira smiled, remembering that resolve from their campaign against the Sith Emperor and countless campaigns after.

Kyrhene knew a little of what transpired. Her abilities were honed to greater degree than most of the councillors and she knew what to look for, they didn't. Whatever future he saw, he would fight to his last breath to prevent it, she was certain of that. She was also certain that she would follow the same footsteps as him and would fight to the end if she had to. Despite climbing to the top of Sith hierarchy, she despised them to the core of her bones, and she knew that only one thing could make Thyrus this focused, Sith.

Thyrus looked around the room. The projection of his friend was still standing in front of him. She took few steps back and bowed deeply to him as a last farewell for now. He bowed back to her, she straightened, smiled and flickered out.

 _"A proof, that the ancient Jedi know and respects Thyrus, this is."_ says Yoda, but few other councillors are still not convinced of his tale. He can see it clearly in the force. Their aura is laced with doubt and disbelief.

 _"We must be certain of the truth. We have to search his memories."_ states Windu, his strongest opponent. Few other councillors agree.  
 _"Let me get this straight. You want to force your way into my mind and sift through my memories?"_ Thyrus asks, still not sure what to make of it. Yoda opens his mouth to speak but Thyrus is faster.  
 _"Yeah, why not. Knock yourself out."_ he says.

Kira is bit surprised and Kyrhene starts to laugh, knowing full well what awaits the councillors. Before they can do anything, he reaches out and links their minds to his own, drawing them to his mind.

* * *

Obi-Wan doesn't understand what happened. One moment he was standing in the high council chamber, watching the discussion with assumed ancient Jedi who just happened to fall from the sky and in the next he is here. Where that is he does not know. Obi-Wan is on the verge of panicking but doesn't because of his training and because he can see others who were in the chamber, they are as confused as him. They all have mist around them, mostly golden yellow but here and there is the tiniest hair of purplish black.

Then it hits him. This place must be some sort of spiritual plane and the auras are their personalities in the force. Soothing golden colour for the light and the black for the dark. He looks down on himself, mostly golden with few hairs of blackness. He doesn't know how he figured it out, it just came to him.

He looks around him once more and tries to make sense of his surroundings. It looks like he is standing on the surface of meteor plummeting through the void. All over the horizon, there are burning and disintegrating vessels of many unknown designs, as if frozen mid motion. One type he recognizes cleanly, it is the same one as the ship that came to their rescue over Naboo, but slightly different.

'Where are we?' he wonders. He carefully looks around once more. This time he is focusing on the asteroid, at least he thinks it is. It is haunting landscape littered with shattered remnants of statues, some still in one piece. There is a clearing in the distance, it looks a lot like the high council chamber. The floor is the same as in the chamber and there are chairs placed in the circle, he feels himself being pulled to that place. He sets off towards the clearing, the others will have to go there too. There is only one path that leads from where he stands. After few steps he is blinded. He opens his eyes and finds himself standing in some sort of underground bunker. 'How did I get here?' he wonders.

There is one man, strapped into what appears as an interrogation table. Then there are three men standing near the holoprojector in the corner of the room and few armoured guards at the entrance. One of the men is talking to someone over the holoprojector. He is dressed in immaculate uniform. None of them seem to notice Obi-Wan. Even when he tried to call out to them.

He looked at the door and saw Thyrus enter. He was wearing robes similar to the Jedi ones, but underneath them, he wore some kind of light plated armour. Kira was following him, her robes more reminiscent of an elegant dress than the simple jedi robes. Guards didn't hinder Thyrus's movement and he slowly walked up to the man talking to the holo.

 _"Lord Angral, my interrogation is complete. Transmitting my report to you know."_ said the man.  
 _"Your efficiency will be noted. Take doctor Godera to Dromund Kaas. I have plans for him."_ said lord Angral.  
'So, the man strapped to the table must be this doctor Godera. But I have never heard about Dromund Kaas,' thinks Obi-Wan to himself.

At this point Thyrus walked up to the holoprojector.  
 _"You never mentioned you were working for Angral."_ said Thyrus with venom in his voice.  
The man didn't react but Angral was shaken.  
 _"What is this? Explain yourself, Watcher."_ demands Angral, anger clear in his voice with a hint of surprise.  
 _"To ensure mission success, I compromised with the Jedi. He is here for the doctor."_ explains Watcher.  
Angral is white with rage, his words feel cold as void of space.  
 _"You… compromised? With the Jedi vermin who killed my son?_ " asks Angral, clearly not expecting answer.  
 _"Perhaps I should be grateful. You have spared me the effort of hunting you down."_ says Angral, recomposing himself.

 _"Stop throwing your lackeys at me. If you want to end this, do it in person."_ quips Thyrus.  
Angral is once more clearly angered.  
 _"Watcher, bring me this filth alive. I will kill him myself."_ Angral demands.  
Watcher fidgets a little.  
 _"Respectfully, my lord, I'm duty-bound to honour our bargain."_ Watcher rejects the order.  
 _"Don't trifle with me! I want that Jedi."_ Angral almost yells.  
 _"Very well, lord Angral."_ Watcher backs down from the argument and bows.  
Satisfied, Angral cuts the connection. Watcher is still looking at the place where the projection was.

 _"I apologize for reneging on our deal, but I have orders. You understand. I recommend you surrender."_ says Watcher with a sigh and turns to face Thyrus.  
 _"Give me doctor Godera and walk away while you still can."_ replies Thyrus.  
 _"We seem to be at an impasse. This is not the ending I would have chosen."_ Says Watcher with trace of pity in his voice.

As if acting on some unseen cue, both Thyrus and Watcher know that conversation is over and draw their weapons. The guards do the same. Thyrus ignites his lightsabre and quickly starts deflecting bolts coming from the guards. Kira does the same. Watcher rolls away from Thyrus and fires from his own pistol, his bolts joining the hailstorm in the air.

Obi-Wan doesn't hold high chances for Thyrus and Kira to win. He is certain that he and Qui-Gon wouldn't most likely win this and doesn't see way for Thyrus to do so. He is forced on the defence, his attackers have clear advantage.

To Obi-Wan's surprise Thyrus leaps from the place and lands on one of the guards, knocking him on the ground. As he regains his footing he slashes the guard across the throat with lightsabre, killing him instantly. Blaster fire follows fraction of a second behind him and he is once more forced on the defence. But this time he is short distance from the second armoured guard. Few of the blaster bolts make it past Thyrus's lightsabre but they are stopped by glowing bubble around him. 'Force Barrier!' realizes Obi-Wan. Unrelenting, Thyrus advances to the guard two is backtracking. The guard is not fast enough and soon he is killed with lightsabre strike across his chest.

In a meantime, Kira rolls to the side and charges one of the lightly armoured guards near the holoprojector. He notices her, but it is too late. With one strike his head is sent flying across the room. The other guard discards his blaster pistol and draws vibrosword from his back, then charges at Kira. Obi-Wan is once more surprised. This time it is the skill of the guard that surprises him. He had never seen anyone, but Jedi display such skill. Kira is forced to defend herself. But by this time, Thyrus is finished with the two guards and leaps back. The last remaining guard is not fast enough, and his life is soon ended by deflected blaster bolt from Watcher.

Thyrus slowly walks up to the Watcher, deflecting his shots to the walls. Kira is slowly trailing behind. Watcher seems to realize the direness of his situation but refuses to yield, continuing the fight. Thyrus closes the distance and swiftly ends the fight. With two strikes he manages to sever Watcher's pistol in half and kicks him in the abdomen, sending him on the ground and ending the fight. Then he and Kira extinguish their lightsabres.

Watcher drags himself back to his feet. One of his hands clutching his hurt ribs.  
 _"Again, Darth Angral underestimates you."_ he says, catching his breath.  
 _"Twenty years, I have avoided becoming the casualty of Sith madness. But, an order is an order."_ says Watcher, regret lacing his voice.  
 _"Obligations are what shape our lives."_ states Thyrus sympathetically.  
 _"We are not so different. For some reason, that is a comfort."_ replies Watcher.  
 _"Regardless, you are the victor here. How do you wish to proceed?"_ he asks.

Thyrus is thinking for a second and then speaks to the Watcher,  
 _"Angral will kill you for failing. You can't return to the Empire. Go, find a new life in the Republic. You may discover we are not the enemy you think."_  
 _"What! I… only a fool would question such generous offer. I thank you."_ says Watcher, surprised and relieved.  
As the Watcher is limping away, he turns back for a second and adds,  
 _"Perhaps our paths will cross again. Farewell, Jedi."  
_ With that he is gone. Thyrus is looking after him for a second.  
 _"Perhaps."_ he says with a smile.

Then the vision fades into nothingness and Obi-Wan finds himself in the middle of the clearing. There is no one here. He walks into the reflection of the chamber and with shivers sent down his spine finds himself back in his own body, standing in the chambers of high council in the Temple.

* * *

Like the others, Etain found herself on the strange asteroid. She was despairing and panicking, not knowing what to do.  
 _"Fear not. You are not alone, and you are safe here."_ Said disembodied voice to her, sounding suspiciously like Thyrus.  
 _"Where am I?"_ she asked, fear clear in her voice. Nonetheless she calmed down a bit and stopped panicking.  
 _"You are inside my mind. When I created connection to the councillors, the force created one to you. Now you are all inside my mind."_ explained the voice.  
 _"This is your mind? Creepy."_ stated Etain, looking around. She heard genuine laughter washing over her.  
 _"No, not creepy simply messed up a bit."_ replied the voice with hits of smile.  
 _"Walk to the middle of the clearing, there you will find a way out of here."_ said the voice.  
 _"Beware, you may see my past while you linger here. Remember, the events happened long ago and there is no danger to you."_ warned the voice.

Deciding to trust the voice, she set out. She walked only a few steps before she suddenly found herself standing on a cliff in a desert. She looked around, confused. It must have been a desert planet because as far as she could see there was only sand and eroded mountains.

There was a lone figure, staring out on the sea of dunes, standing on the edge of the cliff. The man wore some kind of armour. His skin was red and most prominent feature of his face were fleshy extrusions instead of eyebrows and several ridges on his nose.  
Suddenly the man said, _"I sense your power. Now I understand why Tarnis was no match for you."_  
Etain was about to ask what that meant because she was certain that she didn't see this man or Tarnis never before. The man continued, _"His death was my failure. I should've trained him better."_

She watches on as Thyrus enters and enters the conversation with the man. As it turns out he is a Sith named Lord Praven. They debate for a while and then fight. Etain had never seen such display of skill and power. Thyrus and Kira fight side by side against Lord Praven. Lightsabres clash with such ferocity that Etain can't keep up. During the duel both Praven and Thyrus attack each other with powerful telekinetic blasts. But in the end it is Thyrus and Kira who are victorious.

Praven admits his defeat and hands over some code. Then he asks Thyrus to kill him, but Thyrus refuses. To Etain's great surprise he convinces Praven to abandon the dark side. To her even greater surprise, he convices Praven to become a Jedi and assures him that the Order will accept him. With that Etain finds herself back on the asteroid.

She looks at her surroundings, she is standing in the clearing. How she got there, she does not know.  
 _"Walk into the reflection."_ guides her the voice. Etain listens to it and walks into the reflection of the high council chambers. With a deep breath she is back in the Temple and can see Thyrus smiling at her, his eyes gentle and caring. She smiles back.

* * *

Obi-Wan found himself back in the high council chambers. The vision of Thyrus's memory was still fresh inside his head. Judging by the looks everyone saw some part of his past. Obi-Wan wondered what others saw. Councillors were trying to recompose themselves and recollect their thoughts. Obi-Wan was still trying to control the emotions he gathered in that strange place.

Before anyone could say anything, the initiate, Etain, asked Thyrus a question,  
 _"What happened to Praven and master Kiwiiks?"  
_ Thyrus turned to her and smiled. It felt honest and friendly.  
 _"Praven became a Jedi and saved countless lives. Master Kiwiiks survived and spent years guiding the Order as a member of the High Council."_ answered Thyrus with a smile. Etain looked like she had more questions but by now the council recollected itself.

 _"What was that!"_ master Windu demanded to know.  
 _"You wanted to get inside my mind, so I brought you there."_ Thyrus replied with a shrug. His smile and friendliness disappearing in an instant.  
 _"Those visions, what were they?"_ asked master Gallia.  
 _"Memories of my past."_ answered Thyrus.  
 _"The Sith Emperor?"_ asked Yoda, clearly rattled. Obi-Wan was stunned, he had never seen master Yoda so unbalanced. Whatever he saw, it affected him greatly.  
 _"Dead, on the third try."_ Thyrus answered matter-of-factly.

From there the debate deteriorated quickly. Master Windu and few other councillors believed that Thyrus was far too dangerous to be left unchecked. While inside his mind they all could sense his true signature in the force. It was strongly emanating the light side of the Force, but it was shrouded deeply in the dark side. That was worrying the councillors, they have never felt anyone who carried such darkness and wasn't consumed by it. His immense power was not making it any easier. Master Yoda was uncharacteristically silent during the entire debate.

There was also a problem that council felt that some of the memories were hidden from them and that what they have been told wasn't the full truth. Few of them, with Windu in the head were adamant in learning the full truth. Thyrus and his companions were standing by their own words and refused to give answers to some questions. This in turn drove Windu to be even more acrimonious. Things so went that badly that master Windu drew his lightsabre and informed Thyrus that he is under arrest and wanted him to surrender his weapons.

 _"For. What."_ said Thyrus, his voice cold as void of space.  
 _"You are too dangerous to be left alone. Combined with the current situation it is far too unbelievable coincidence of events."_ said Windu. _  
"You are too unbalanced and carry too much darkness. This cannot be allowed to continue. The fact that you appear during this crisis and rise of the dark side does not give you credit."_ continues Windu.  
 _"You and that holocron appear and claim to be over three millennia old. And you are clearly not telling full truth, and we must know why."_ states Windu. Obi-Wan can see many council members agreeing with him.

 _"And if I don't give in?"_ says Thyrus slowly.  
 _"Then we will do what we must."_ replies Windu, pointing his lightsabre at Thyrus.  
Woman introduced as Kira starts reaching for her own lightsabre but Thyrus stops her with wave of his hand.  
 _"I will not be contained, I cannot be subdued by you. Death is all that remains, you will not kill me."_ says Thyrus, taking a step to Windu. Tip of the lightsabre is now few millimetres away from his nose.

The initiate backtracks away from this and almost hides behind Obi-Wan.

Both men are staring at each other intensely. Just as Yoda opens his mouth to say something, Windu is thrown into pillar and Thyrus takes two steps back. The remaining councillors with exception of Yoda and Yaddle rose and ignited their lightsabres.

Then something strange happened, every councillor that drew his or her weapon was pushed with immense power to the wall. Obi-Wan glanced at Thyrus but he simply stood there calmly and neither he nor his companions lifted a finger. Obi-Wan blinked and in middle of the room stood hulking figure. He swore that it wasn't there moment ago.

 _"Enough."_ said firm voice with echo in the Force.  
 _"A force ghost."_ breathed out Yoda.  
 _"Yes."_ said Thyrus with a nod. Then he turned his head to the ghost.

 _"Darth Marr"_ said Thyrus. _"Why are you here?"  
"You have a destiny to fulfil. This meaningless bickering serves nothing."_ said the ghost with disgust.  
To the surprise of everyone, Yoda said _"Agree I do. Will of the Force, this is."  
"Release them"_ said Yoda, pointing with his stick to councillors still pinned to walls.  
To Obi-Wan's surprise the ghost let go of the councillors who fell to the ground. The ghost turned to Thyrus and looked at him, at least Obi-Wan believed that is what happened. It is hard to tell with the ghost's mask. Then the ghost disappeared just as mysteriously as it arrived.

With master Windu still unconscious from his meeting with the pillar, truce has been reached. While Thyrus gained support of Yoda, Yaddle and Plo Koon, it was clear that the rest of the council didn't trust him greatly. He didn't seem rattled by the mistrust and acted as if nothing happened. Then they all turn to discussion about the Invasion of Naboo, Thyrus adding his own knowledge to that of the council.

In middle of discussion, he suddenly stopped listening to Plo Koon and looked to the horizon. Then he turned to the smuggler, Kyrhene, and asked _"Have you felt it?"_  
This confused Obi-Wan. 'What is he talking about?' he wondered. Even Plo Koon stopped talking when he noticed that his audience shifted their focus to the exchange.

Kyrhene stood still for a moment with her eyes closed. Then she opened them and smiled. At least Obi-Wan thought it was a smile, but it was nothing more than exposing her teeth.  
 _"Yes. He has made a mistake."_ she said, almost laughing. Even Kira looked confused but she apparently trusted Thyrus. From Obi-Wan's point of view, more than was healthy.

Thyrus took one of his lightsabres and threw it to Kyrhene. She grabbed it and her clothes disappeared in strange purple mist. Instead of the clothes she was given by the Jedi, she was now wearing strange black-grey robes.

 _"Don't tell me. Illusion."_ said Kira, watching the change too, shaking her hear. Kyrhene simply nodded and grinned.  
 _"FIND. HIM."_ ordered Thyrus with voice that carried resolve and was cold as void of space.  
 _"With pleasure."_ replied Kyrhene. Then she looked directly at Obi-Wan and asked, _"Where is the speeder pool?"  
"Twelfth floor, south side."_ stammered surprised Obi-Wan. She turned and with lightning speed ran to the turbolift, strangely the doors opened in front of her. Last thing Obi-Wan saw of her, was her robes disappearing into the empty turbolift chute.

 _"Who is she?"_ demanded master Mundi. Thyrus turned to face him.  
 _"I am surprised you haven't sensed it yet."_ he said calmly.  
 _"Sensed what, hmm?"_ asked Yoda.

 _"Once she was known as Darth Imperius. One of the twelve most powerful Sith in a Galaxy."_ said Thyrus with a smile.  
 _"Now, she is one of my most trusted allies."_ he finished.  
 _"YOU HAVE ALLIED YOURSELF WITH A SITH?!"_ cried out master Windu, who came to his senses few moments ago.

Obi-Wan was stunned as everyone else. He hadn't sensed anything from her. Nothing more than what he would sense from ordinary non-force-sensitive people, just the normal mixture of emotions. The Initiate behind him was trembling. He placed his hand on her shoulder and tried to calm her down.

 _"To truly defeat an enemy, you must know them. Not simply their battle tactics, but their history, philosophy, the way of thinking too."_ Thyrus calmly explained.  
 _"And no one knows more about the Sith, than the former Head of Sphere of Ancient Knowledge."_ he finished.

 _"Where did she go?"_ asked master Plo Koon calmer than master Windu.  
 _"We both sensed someone drawing on the dark side of the Force. And we all know there is the only one who could do that."_ Thyrus replied and added, _"The Sith behind the Invasion of Naboo."_

 _"Now, if you excuse me."_ he said and with slight mocking bow left the council before they could say anything. Kira following closely behind him.

* * *

Something was not right. No, something was utterly wrong. Sidious was just trying to convince the idealistic queen to move a vote of no confidence. When she refused to do so, he tried using the force to persuade her. Shortly after that attempt he got the mother of all headaches. As if someone struck giant nail into back of his head.

He tried to continue his act, but he couldn't fully concentrate. He excused himself under pretence of urgent political meeting and all but run into the garage. There he climbed to his speeder and flew out, trying to flee to his shelter in the lower levels in order to make sense of what was happening. He was racking his brain, trying to find answers to this situation when he was flying out of the garage. He didn't notice another speeder closing in at full speed until it rammed into his own. The crash damaged heavily his speeder and send him crashing into nearby skywalk. Sidious used the Force to cushion his fall, but couldn't fully concentrate with the headache, and he received bruises and scratches. He quickly climbed from his trashed speeder and tried to get away as it exploded.

The explosion threw him few meters and he landed on the ground. All around him he could see bystanders terrified and fleeing. Media droids were on the other hand trying to get as close as possible. Then he looked at the burning wreckage of his speeder. A lone figure calmly walked through the fire with eyes emanating purplish mist looking directly at him. He could see that the figure was dressed in heavy robes and in her right hand carried a lightsabre with blade unlike any he has seen before. Its core was deep blue with the aura around it being blood-red. With the Force he sensed a mixture of dark and light side of the Force radiating from it with strength he had never seen before.

Sidious realized that this strange figure was responsible for the crash and his headache. He channelled the dark side of the force, still trying to hide his presence in the force. That was until the figure cleared the fire and he could see it directly.

It was a zabrak woman. And her arms were surrounded by dark aura with electric arcing around her hands and occasionally arcing up to her elbows and shoulders. She raised her left hand and sent bolt of energy flying towards Sidious. In that moment he understood what was happening. He tried to evade it but was far too slow. It grazed his right side and his entire world exploded in pain.

This, strangely, freed him from his headache and he could fully concentrate once more. As he was rolling in pain, electricity surging through his body, he could hear cracking laugh coming from his attacker. Sidious quickly cleared his head and struck back at his attacker, sending a wave of pure dark side energy at her.

To his surprise she created bubble around herself and shrugged of his attack. Tendrils of his lightning dissipated meter in front of her on the surface of her protective barrier. He could see from her eyes and movements that she was out for blood and fully intended to kill him. This left him with very little possibilities. He was forced to disregard his cover and gather the dark side to his protection.

Sidious channelled the Force and leaped at the zabrak. Mid-jump he drew his hidden lightsabre and ignited it, the blood-red blade sprung to life. Zabrak raised her own lightsabre and parried with ease. But instead of attacking back with her own lightsabre she unleashed force lightning at Sidious. This time, he was expecting the attack and managed to deflect it with his lightsabre. Unfortunately for him, few lightning tendrils snuck past his defence and scorched left side of his face. He instantly lost sight in his left eye. He screamed and furiously charged with his lightsabre, forcing his attacker on defence.

In his fury, he didn't notice another speeder close in and the two figures, dressed in Jedi robes, run to him. He felt them only when he evaded strike at his kidneys at the last possible moment, jumping to the right and disengaging from the duel with zabrak.

His only functioning eye saw a man, no older than forty, holding a lightsabre with purple blade and a woman with green double-bladed saberstaff. For a moment he thought that they would attack them both and it would enable him to flee. Then one small detail caught his one working eye. The three of them placed themselves in such position as not to let him escape. They were working together with his attacker.

 _"You are outmatched, death is all but certain. Surrender, Sith."_ called the man to him.

He didn't know how they found him, and at this moment didn't care. Only thing he wanted to do was kill them where they stood. Sidious gathered his strength and sent lightning at all three attackers at the same time. The zabrak created another bubble around herself and his lightning once more harmlessly dissipated about meter in front of her. The other two deflected with their lightsabres. Sidious went on the offensive and jumped at the man, striking with his lightsabre.

But Sidious miscalculated, the man was much better duellist than anticipated. Series of strikes were stopped without much effort. Downwards slash, Upwards slash, horizontal spin, nothing could pierce the man's defence. When the woman joined in, Sidious had his hands full fighting for his life. His defences were extraordinary, but his attackers were even better and soon his body was covered in small cuts all over. Sidious was relying heavily on his acrobatic movements to protect him. He couldn't keep his defences up for a long time against such skilled opponents. He was painfully aware that he was barely holding his own against two of them, it would be impossible to keep on fighting the moment zabrak would join in.

As Sidious was trying to find a way to defeat his enemies and at the same time trying hard not to get his head cut off. After few minutes of fierce fighting, he noticed that the little green troll and the other Jedi from the temple made their appearance. Along with what looked like half of Coruscant Security Force. He had no other option. He had to abandon his master's plan, years in making, and run away. With powerful force wave he shoved everyone on the skywalk away from him. CSF officers went flying, the Jedi were thrown back, but his three attackers simply crouched and slid back few meters. It infuriated him even more.

Acting quickly, he dashed to the side of the skywalk, looked down and jumped with the force propelling him forward. He dropped few hundred meters before anyone could even react.

* * *

After the fight ended and he managed to get away, Thyrus decided to talk to the queen. As it turned out, he just fought Senator for her planet. That caused him to think what would the Sith want to gain from that position. He was hoping that talk with the queen would give him some answers.

* * *

Everything went smoothly, considering. He convinced the council to let him be and even gained few supporters in their ranks. At the same day he destroyed Sith's cover and forced him to flee. Kyrhene was angry that they didn't kill him outright but was pleased enough that they derailed his plans to let it go.

When it came to plans. He put his own plan in motion. After he succeeded in avoiding arrest by CSF for destruction of public property, with the help of Yoda. He then made his way to the queen. There he gained valuable pieces of information and at the same dime dissuaded the queen from following advices of late senator.

With the help from Kyrhene, Thyrus formulated a two-stage plan. First-stage was getting the senate to sanction action against the nemoidians and condemning their blockade. That is why he was now sitting in the chair on the floating pod while the queen gave her speech to the senate. It went without saying that he changed his clothes for new, clean ones, before that. One does not present himself before the senate in dirty clothes.

He had certain expectations about what would happen. Thyrus also informed queen that not every aspect of politics happened inside the senate chamber. As he well knew from his days in Republic High Command, some parts were better left behind scenes. Queen listened to him and conceded, for now.

As it was expected, Trade Federation representatives denied any and all allegations. The debate quickly escalated into bickering. Thyrus understood politics enough to know that any attempt to officially send help would be stopped by few delegates. He couldn't fully ascertain which senators were corrupt and which weren't. Because of that he decided not to interject and wait for it do blow over. Queen had made several inspiring speeches and attempts to get help for her planet but ultimately failed to gain necessary support. Trade Federation succeeded in creation of committee to determine truth of queen's statement. During all this, Thyrus was attempting to figure out, why would corporations have a say so in the Senate, it certainly was unthinkable in his time.

Queen was despairing for a while after the session ended but Thyrus assured her that his plan would work. Unsurprisingly, they were soon approached by senatorial aide and asked to come to meeting with the chancellor. They were led to his modestly decorated office and saw few other delegated already present. To his surprise, master Yoda and unknown mirialan knight were also present.

 _"Ah, thank you for your time."_ said Chancellor as soon as the doors closed.  
 _"I regret deeply what has befallen your planet and so do these delegates. Unfortunately, as you may have seen, there are some in the senate that question the truth of your words."_ Chancellor explained.

Thyrus tuned out the conversation as the queen replied and focused on the delegates present instead. Few of them had motives of their own, mostly to limit power of Trade Federation, but there were few exceptions. He found it hard to believe that he actually felt some honest and righteous delegates here. Those delegates truly believed that Federation had to be stopped and chancellor was one of them. Because he wasn't paying attention to the conversation and was deep in thought, he didn't notice that the said conversation turned to him and everyone was waiting for him. He figured that out only after being elbowed hard into his ribs by Kira and seeing everyone looking at him.

 _"Apologies, I was … Ehm. Excuse me. Where were we?"_ he poorly excused himself.  
 _"The queen said that you have evidence."_ said Kira helpfully.  
 _"Yes, that is correct. With your permission Chancellor, may I use your holonet transceiver?"_ Thyrus said with realisation.

 _"Yes, Master Jedi. Please come. It is here on the table."_ Answered surprised Chancellor, he wasn't expecting this. He led Thyrus to his table and then gave him access to his holoreceiver. Thyrus politely thanked him and immediately set out to his task.  
 _"Moment please."_ He said.  
 _"What are you doing, might I ask?"_ inquired Chancellor, looking at the large amount of lines Thyrus was writing from his memory.  
 _"Nothing much, rewriting bits of the code and strengthening encryption. By the way, were you aware, Chancellor, that your communication has been monitored?"_ said Thyrus matter-of-factly, not moving his eyes from the floating lines of code in front of him. Chancellor was incredibly surprised.  
 _"Pardon me. Monitored?"_ he asked, not believing his ears. Other delegates seemed equally surprised.  
 _"Yes, though that would be thing of the past. While my encryption codes will delete themselves after this short transmission, the changes to this workstation should prevent such actions in the future."_ explained Thyrus, finishing his work.

 _"That should do it."_ he whispered to himself and activated the device. After a short while it created connection to the Voidstar's databanks. Captain was informed beforehand and authorised the connection on her end. The projection erupted in multitude of streams of information. Ship status, squadron readiness, fuel consumption, sensor readout, personnel roster, cantina lunch menu, archive recordings and computer simulations among them. The information was spread out in the entire holoprojector field. While the senators tried to make sense of the data in front of them, Thyrus quickly found what he was looking for and downloaded it into chancellor's workstation. With the data transfer complete, he severed the connection to his flagship and the encryption necessary deleted and overwritten itself.

 _"Master Jedi, what was that?"_ asked confused Chancellor.  
 _"I needed to download few things from the main computer of my Flagship. What you have seen was fragment of the information contained in the command network maintained by its computers."_ explained Thyrus.

 _"Excuse me, your flagship?"_ asked the mirialan knight.  
 _"Yes, Voidstar, knight…"_ replied Thyrus.  
 _"Luminara Unduli."_ Knight introduced herself.  
 _"Pleasure to meet you, knight Unduli."_ said Thyrus with slight bow.

 _"Who are you exactly, Master Jedi?"_ asked Chancellor, a bit of edge to his voice.  
 _"My apologies, where are my manners!"_ Exclaimed Thyrus and introduced himself,  
 _"Jedi Battlemaster Thyrus, Fleet Admiral of the 7th fleet and former member of Republic High Command."_

 _"Oh, and apparently, me and my crew are more than three and a half millennia old. Our credentials are in separate file I downloaded into your workstation."_ He added, as if almost forgotten piece of information. He is carefully studied by everyone in the room. Then they all turn to Yoda who just nods.

 _"How is that possible?"_ asks one of the senators, the honest ones.  
 _"Hell if I know how. One moment we are returning to base from campaign against the Sith Empire in the outer rim, next we are floating in gas giant in Naboo System few days back."_ Thyrus says with a shrug. Not telling the whole truth.  
 _"But the important fact is, that we have managed to record entire Trade Federation occupation since the beginning. Ship sensor logs, intercepted transmissions, reports from our ground teams, it is everything in here."_ he adds and puts the downloaded data on projection.

 _"Why didn't you present this in the senate?"_ asks another senator.  
 _"How would that go? I had better chance here with small gathering. Besides, Trade Federation would be alarmed, and their allies would prevent any resolution."_ explained Thyrus.  
 _"I cannot disagree with your logic, Master Jedi… Admiral?"_ says Chancellor, bit confused.  
 _"One or another, your choice_." Replies Thyrus with a smirk.

 _"Proposal you have, don't you? Hm…"_ Yoda joins the conversation.  
 _"Actually yes. With your permission, Chancellor, I would launch immediate counter-attack against the Trade Federation army."_ stated Thyrus, looking intently at Chancellor. Everyone in the room was speechless.

 _"Counter-attack? With my permission?"_ asked Chancellor incredulously.  
 _"Yes. I have strong enough force under my command and it is standard procedure when Republic member world is under attack, after all it is mission of the Republic Army to protect its worlds. We are all that is left of it. With the Rusaan Reformations, High Command is no more, and chain of command is gone, yours is the only position still present. I have the authority to carry out such mission as per standard operating parameters. I only need your permission Chancellor."_ explained Thyrus. Everything depended on the Chancellor now. Thyrus was prepared to go even without permission but it made thing much easier. Chancellor was silent for a while and thinking.

 _"Of course, no one apart from those present here know about the continuing survival of the 7th, my, fleet. Should things complicate, we will simply be highly organized mercenary group with no ties to this office."_ he added, knowing that some politicians preferred to keep hands clean.

 _"You said it is standard procedure, can you explain?"_ Chancellor finally asked.  
 _"It is the mission of Republic Army to protect citizens of the Republic, by extension their planets. Ever since the Hutts attempted to restart their Empire by seizing planet Makeb, the Army created set of standing orders should something like this happen again. This situation is well-within those orders."_ replied Thyrus, slowly losing his patience.

 _"Are you certain that you have enough forces to break the blockade and rout the invasion force?"_ asked one of the senators.  
 _"Yes, I guarantee it."_ stated Thyrus firmly.  
 _"Then I suggest, Chancellor, that we follow with this plan."_ recommended Senator and few others voiced their agreement. But the chancellor was still deciding.

 _"With respect, I understand that we will no longer be able to serve the Republic as we did before. Give my soldiers the last chance to fulfil duty they have dedicated their lives to."_ Thyrus tried to persuade the chancellor.  
 _"With the evidence you received, it will be only a matter of time before resolution to stop the blockade is passed. This could prevent more suffering."_ said Luminara, surprisingly coming to Thyrus's aid.  
 _"What do you think, master Yoda?"_ asked chancellor, clearly trusting the old Jedi.  
 _"Agree with master Luminara, I do."_ Yoda replied. Chancellor nodded and turned to Thyrus, who straightened.

 _"I authorize you to act as is required in this situation, Admiral."_ states Chancellor officially.  
 _"Understood. Now if you excuse me I have a planet to liberate."_ replied Thyrus in same official tone and saluted. He took his leave, but before that he consulted with queen that they would depart tomorrow morning in her yacht to rendezvous with his flagship.

When the doors closed behind him, he exhaled.  
 _"Well that is finished. Let's not repeat this any time soon."_ Says Kira.  
 _"Agreed."_ replies Thyrus.

* * *

Etain lay down on her bunk in a room she shared with her clan-mates. It has been more than interesting day. She still couldn't believe most of what happened. It was already late, and she still couldn't calm her mind. She was still replaying the events of the day inside her mind. By this time most if not all other initiates in the room slept soundly. She calmed her mind once more and closed her eyes in attempt to drift off into sleep.

Instead of soothing sleep she found herself somewhere else. It felt like she stood on a solid flat ground. Yet everywhere she looked she could see nothing else than pristine whiteness.  
 _"Shouldn't the little girl like you be asleep by now?"_ asked cheerful voice from behind her. She turned around and saw Thyrus sitting on the ground. One of his legs was extended and the other was folded beneath it, he was slightly leaning back on his arms.

 _"Where am I?"_ she asked, believing to know the answer.  
 _"Exactly where you were, in your room."_ he answered with a smirk.  
 _"Doesn't look like it, too clean."_ she retorted.  
 _"Ah, what has the order came to. Such pitiful state of Temple."_ exclaimed Thyrus in mock sadness.

 _"But alas I have not gone into this effort to discuss the state of initiate bedroom."_ he said and sighed out loudly.  
 _"Then what do you want?"_ she asked, curious.  
 _"To learn about you."_ Thyrus answered honestly.  
 _"M-me?"_ she stammered, surprised.

 _"Yes, what is so surprising about it?"_ Thyrus asked, amused.  
 _"I-I just think that you would have… more… important things on your mind right now."_ Etain managed to answer.  
 _"Well, not really. Naboo is not that complicated matter. I have already taken care of politicians and I don't really need to sleep. That leaves me with quite a lot of free time."_ Thyrus explained in friendly voice.  
 _"I don't understand. You don't need to sleep?"_ asked Etain, curious. She knew that her curiosity was getting better of her and should probably stop but couldn't. There was something about Thyrus. In many ways he seemed like any other master in the Temple, wise calm and calculating his every move. But at the same time, he was more relaxed and carefree than any other master or knight she has seen in the temple. It was the last part that propped her to continue this conversation.

 _"The thing is… I have slept in carbonite for five years. Filled my quota for a while, even being the lazy-ass I am."_ Explained Thyrus, smiling widely at her.  
 _"Five years in carbonite?"_ exclaimed Etain, question quickly followed, _"How?"  
"Long story, for another time."_ Thyrus said and winked at her.  
 _"Now tell me about yourself, please."_ He kindly asked, leaning forward and placing his hands on his legs.

 _"There is not that much to tell. I grew up in the temple and never had any particular ability. I fear that, in the end, I will be sent to the AgriCorps. I am not particularly strong in the force"_ Etain said, her head hung low. _  
"Hm…"_ was the only response she heard. She was surprised by this and confused. She looked up and studied him for a moment. He appeared to be deep in thought. After few minutes he looked up at her and smiled.

 _"Have you ever heard about Zayne Carrick?"_ he asked, getting up. She tried hard to remember anything but eventually came up with nothing.  
 _"No, I haven't. Who was he?"_ Etain asked, curiosity once again getting the better of her.  
 _"A great Republic hero. His actions saved countless lives during the Mandalorian Wars."_ explained Thyrus.  
 _"I see, but why are you telling me this?"_ she asked, not understaning.  
 _"You see, he was a … washout. His connection to the Force marginal. I don't know what AgriCops is, but if I understand correctly, then he would have ended there and so would his tale."_ Thyrus once more explained.  
 _"And why are you telling me this?"_ she asked, still not getting the point of it.

 _"You don't need to have a strong connection to the Force to do good. Not that it is your case. You just need to find your own way to do it. Perhaps…"_ he says, looking at her with a smile and stopping mid-sentence.  
 _"Perhaps what?"_ she demanded. Now, she wanted to know.

 _"I think it is will of the Force that I am destined to stay in this time. I might as well do something useful."_ he muses.  
 _"What would you say if I were to promise to teach you everything I know? I warn you, it would be much easier with the other masters in the temple."_ he asked, his eyebrow raising.  
Etain was astounded.

 _"You want me to be your Padawan?"_ she asks, not believing what she heard.  
 _"I suppose, would that be a problem?"_ he asks, sounding almost insulted. His eyes were gleaming with amusement.  
 _"But… I am only nine."_ she exclaims. He simply raises his eyebrow even more.  
 _"Ten in a few months."_ Etain murmurs.

 _"I have still not heard an answer."_ Thyrus says light-heartedly.  
 _"I… Yes! Yes, I accept."_ Etain almost cries out. Thyrus simply smiles at her once more.  
 _"Then, I will come to pick you up after I finish up this mess on Naboo. Until then do as normal. I will clear this with council afterwards. Padawan Tur-Mukan."_ Thyrus said, putting emphasis on the word 'Padawan'.

 _"Yes, I will."_ Agreed Etain, beaming with happiness. She was already looking up to the adventures that awaited her. 'I can't believe it, I am going to be Padawan, and so soon.' she thought to herself. She was so happy that she wanted just to jump and raise her fists in the air.  
Thyrus watched with amusement her for a moment as she was beaming with happiness.  
 _"Alright. Now it is time for you to sleep."_ he said. Etain barely heard his words, not heeding them, still submerged deep in her happiness. Suddenly her eyes became heavy and she slowly drifted off into sleep. Last thing she heard was him softly calling out to her, _"Goodnight."_

* * *

In the morning, they all gathered on the landing pad and boarded the Royal Yacht. In the end, it was him and his two companions tailed by the two twi'leks, Jedi entourage in form of Qui-Gon with Obi-Wan and Adi Gallia with Siri Tachi, sent to watch him, the two senators with their aides and in the last place the queen of Naboo with her followers. After he left, it was decided that the entire operation would be observed by two of the present senators, one from Kashyyk, Thyrus didn't catch the name, and one from Alderaan, Bail Antilles.

Then, with everyone on board, the yacht took off and jumped briefly to hyperspace. After few minutes they dropped out and Thyrus had gathered senators, Jedi and the queen on the bridge with viewport behind him.

 _"Where are those ships of yours?"_ asked Siri sarcastically.  
 _"Siri!"_ reprimanded her Adi Gallia. Thyrus simply ignored the exchange.

 _"Ladies and gentlemen. Allow me to present to you… Voidstar, Brentaal Star, Ravager, Dauntless, Vindicator, Shield of Sarkhai and Tranquility."_ Thyrus said spreading his arms. The moment he finished, in the sky field behind him, in front of lone Defender-class corvette, the entire fleet dropped out of hyperspace in perfect unison.

Everyone was breathless, they have never seen anything like that.  
 _"They are hailing us."_ reported Yacht's captain with his voice slightly shaking.  
 _"On screen"_ ordered the queen, her voice wavering a bit too.

Face of captain Fora appeared and saluted firmly, _"Commander. It is good to have you back. You have hangar bay one cleared for landing."_

He nodded to her and pointed for the pilot to know where to fly, _"The upper one, in the middle."_  
Pilot saw where he should fly and turned the ship. Soon, on each side, appeared four FT-7B Clarion strike fighters that acted as honour guard, leading the ship to its hangar. They touched down in the middle and prepared to disembark and lowered the ramp.

In that moment Thyrus was glad that Fora had flair for a theatrical from her former imperial career. Because on both sides stood lined up soldiers and skytrooper battledroids in several lines. She even ordered four walkers to be placed there. The effect it had on the senators and even the Jedi.

In the middle, directly in front of ramp. Down the aisle of lined up soldiers, stood captain Fora and her first-mate along with Cipher. Thyrus, Kira and Kyrhene all walked up to them, turned and walked for everyone to come to their senses because once again they were stunned by the spectacle they witnessed.

* * *

 **AN: Updated and revised version of this chapter. I have decided that it is far too much pain in the ass to try to connect Legends and Canon so from now on it will be Legends time. Also, I have decided to act upon some constructive critisism, I hope this chapter will be better than the one before.**

 **AN: That is all for now folks. You can wait for more in the future. I hope you will enjoy it and please disregard any of my mistakes. I am not the native speaker and i do my best. Just an addendum, I fully intend to bring the rest of my class characters into story in one way or another along with core characters like Lana and Theron. Final way how, is still to be decided. While I have overall story in mind, details may change as I go along. Also, I intend to cover the entire time of prequels, mainly working in the legends. I am not a great fan of the new canon and as you can see in the story I am trying to find a way for the utter disrespect of the past EU timeline in movies.**

 **Now for the reviews.  
JEDI101: I am sorry. Sometimes I just switch to my native tongoue when it comes to sentense building and dont notice it. I hope I will be albe to eradicate it in the future.**

 **SMASTER28: Thank you. The pairings? Well, Thyrus (knight) has Kira and Cipher has Raina. Kyrhene (Inquisitor) is far too guarded to form any relationship for now. And as you can see, if they are looking for him or he makes a mistake and reveals himselft in the smallest they can find him. But next time it will not be so easy because he will be expecting them. I hope i have answered all your questions.**

 **BOBAN094: Thank you for your kind words. As for the conversations, they are my sore spot. I can't simply find enough homonyms for word 'said'. But yes, in the future, when the name is know or there isn't other reason they will be referred to by name.**


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER IV**

* * *

It took a while, but eventually their guests came back to their senses. Then they walked up to the waiting Thyrus and others. Senators were visibly awed. Jedi were keeping their emotions hidden and displayed perfect Sabacc face. The Queen seemed offended, but her captain Panaka was pleased with what he saw.

 _"Impressive display."_ remarked Adi Gallia when they reached Thyrus.  
 _"We do our best."_ replied Thyrus.  
 _"Senators, Jedi, your highness. Allow me to introduce to you captain Fora, her first mate Haken. And this is Cipher, head of our intelligence units."_ said Thyrus, introducing his closest allies.

Senators gave formal greetings of their own and so did the queen. However, Siri was looking at Cipher with half closed eyes, as if trying to probe him with the Force, foolish attempt and Thyrus knew it.

 _"Strange name, Cipher, and I haven't met anyone of your species, yet."_ said Siri, before Gallia could stop her.  
Cipher waved back Qui-Gon who was trying to prevent Siri from making the situation worse and replied in his characteristically calculated and emotionless tone, _"Because it is a title, and I would be astonished if you were to meet any of my brethren."_

 _"Everyone else was introduced by their name, why not you?"_ asked the queen, curious.  
 _"My name is, for all intends and purposes, Cipher. It has been since I became Intelligence operative."_ replied Cipher.  
 _"If you have a problem with that, it is yours alone."_ he said, ending the conversation.

After a brief and awkward silence Thyrus tried to get things moving, _"Now, I believe you would want a tour of the ship. Wouldn't you?"  
"Yes, that would be most welcome." _replied Qui-Gon. Senators agreed, wanting to see this ship for themselves.

Thyrus motioned towards Kyrhene and HK-55, appearing behind her, and said, _"If you could follow them. I believe they can show you around."  
"Yes, follow me please."_ said Kyrhene, undoubtedly already planning one of her antics.

When the delegation left, following their two tour guides. Thyrus asked one of the soldiers to take the two twi'leks to his and Kira's quarters. They could stay there for now, it wasn't like was planning to relax any time soon. With that out of the way, he thanked and dismissed the soldiers present. They saluted him and started clearing the hangar.

Thyrus beckoned and closely followed by Kira, Cipher and Fora set off for the bridge. As soon as they arrived on bridge he ordered all ships to jump to outskirts Naboo system. Then they all turned their attention to the holographic table with projection of Naboo itself at the back of the bridge on the left. They were joined by few of his trusted officers, some in person while others via hologram. Liberating the planet would be no simple task, but at the same time it wasn't impossible.

They could easily rout the droid army. According to the intel gathered it was more than substandard and heavily inferior to their own skytroopers. The blockade wouldn't be a big problem either, Voidstar and her escorts could take out the ships one by one. Thankfully they were stretched all around the planet and not clustered in one place. Good tactic for blockading a planet but a poor one for defending it against attack. That was the easiest part and soon they agreed that Voidstar would engage the main flagship and pierce the blockade. Her escorts would divide into two groups, each consisting of two Thranta-class heavy cruisers and one Terminus-class destroyer. That should give them flexibility to react and still leave strong enough firepower to knock out the refitted freighters blockading the planet.

Fighters could be a problem as they still were a big unknown, especially how many would they deploy. But flight deck officer was certain that their own Strike-fighters and Bombers could provide cover for shuttles carrying troops to the surface. Ground part of the liberation would be handled by few of his higher-ranking supporters who were on board Voidstar.

Former SIS agent Galen would lead a group of PowerGuard cybernetic soldiers in series of hit-and-run attacks on the Trade Federation strongholds in Theed, while master Ranos would liberate detention camp prisoners with help of Alliance Spec-Force.

In meantime HK-51, along with considerable force of Skytroopers, would engage main body of the droid army. Their main goal was not to destroy them but to lure them to open area. Strike-fighters would handle the rest. In order to get some answers Cipher and lieutenant Temple would lead the squad of intelligence operatives in attempt to capture Viceroy Nute Gunray, who was last sighted in the Royal Palace in Theed. With the droid army safely away, main body of Alliance army would land and secure Theed. From there they would plan further attacks if needed.

Just as they finished planning they could hear and then see Kyrhene and their guest enter the bridge.  
 _"You are insane."_ claimed one of the queen's handmaidens.  
 _"I prefer the term 'differently rational'"_ replied Kyrhene.

 _"Ah, I see you have familiarized yourself with each other."_ said Thyrus, walking up to them.  
 _"Welcome on the bridge. We should be arriving soon."_ he continued, while most of his officers dispersed from the meeting.

 _"What about plan?"_ asked Qui-Gon.  
 _"Leave that to us."_ replied Kira with a wink.  
 _"Liberating is what we do best… next to blowing things up."_ added Thyrus, with his hand stroking his beard.

It looked like they had more questions but he needed to focus for the upcoming mission, so he left Kyrhene and Kira to answer them and left the bridge. He fast tracked it to his quarters where he met the two twi'leks.

 _"Everything all right?"_ he asked with a smile as he was opening his wardrobe.  
 _"Yes, master."_ they replied meekly. Still not fully accustomed to their new surroundings.

 _"Well, things will shake a bit for a while. Also, few alarms might sound. But you have absolutely no reason to be afraid."_ he told them as he was changing into his armour. His hands working on muscle memory alone.  
 _"Should things go bad someone will come for you."_ he finished.  
 _"Yes, master. We will stay here."_ one of them answered.

He would have to get them to know better but that could wait. As he finished, he once more assured the girls that all would be alright and left them there. Journey to the bridge was gone in an instant. Once there, he walked up to his usual command position. On the front of the bridge, in the middle of large number of screens containing sensor readouts and ship readiness data.

Qui-Gon had a helpful notion, _"If you take out droid control ship, the army will deactivate."  
_ Thyrus quickly dismissed it, _"Gladly, if you tell me which one of the ships is it."_

Nothing else could be said as at that moment Voidstar re-entered realspace.

* * *

 _"All ships, status report."_ ordered Thyrus. And soon reports came in.  
 _"Brentaal Star, all systems in the green."_  
 _"Dauntless, ready and waiting."  
"Tranquillity, standing by."  
"Ravager, standing by."  
"Shield of Sarkhai, all systems working."  
"Vindicator, ready to bring the pain."  
_Communications officer turned, _"All troops are combat ready."  
_ Flight deck officer reported, _"All wings are ready for action. Shuttles standing by. Drop pods primed."_

 _"Captain?"_ said Thyrus.  
 _"Voidstar is at your command, sir."_ reported captain Fora.  
 _"What about our enemy?"_ asked Thyrus  
 _"Probes report minimal movement since the last check."_ informed sensor officer.

 _"Very well then. All ships, begin the Operation 'Surprise Party'."_ Thyrus ordered and beckoned to captain Fora.  
She turned and gave signal to navigation officer. Voidstar jumped and few seconds after that rest of the fleet.

* * *

Voidstar re-entered realspace some distance from one of the blockading vessels. Both assigned groups of its escorts on each side.

 _"Launch all fighters."_ ordered Fora. Other ships were doing the same.  
 _"Forward thrust, point six. Seven degrees decline."_ commanded Thyrus.  
Voidstar started slowly moving closer to its prey.  
 _"Magnify the closest vessel."_ said Thyrus.  
 _"Putting on main screen."_ replied sensor officer.

 _"What are you going to do?"_ mused Thyrus to himself. He studied the opposing vessel carefully. So far it simply floated in space. Then he saw it, countless little moths swarming from the open hangars of the ship. They were launching fighters, and it was a lot. More were being launched every moment. This was ridiculous number of fighters. He had to act fast or they would have a real problem.

 _"Main battery, target the primary launch bays on that ship."_ he ordered. Voidstar was unique from all the other Harrower-class vessels because, among other things, she had two rows of long-range turbolasers, one on each side of bridge superstructure. They packed a punch, but unlike other batteries they were far too slow to target fast-moving targets.

These batteries opened fire and Thyrus watched with satisfaction as the shots impacted in the unprotected hangars. They had to lower shields to allow fighters to launch, a mistake. Secondary explosions shook the entire ship as the launching fighters exploded and set off those still waiting to launch. Thyrus glanced on the screen, checking how the rest of his fleet fared.

First group, Vindicator Dauntless and Tranquility, was firing on the nearest Trade Federation ship on the left and from the looks of it caught it off guard. Second group, Ravager Shield of Sarkhai and Brentaal Star, were locked in combat with nearest ship on the right. Ravager was incinerating droid fighters by dozens while the two Thranta-class cruisers were firing all their might on the source of said fighters, being covered by their own fighters.

He returned attention to his own target at the right moment. Fighters that manager to launch were closing in fast. In his opinion, far too many for his fighter screen to manage.  
 _"All batteries, target those fighters."_ he commanded.

Voidstar opened fire with everything she got. Hundreds of Vulture-droids were swatted out of the sky. In many cases the parts of them carried in their last trajectory and harmlessly bounced of the hull. Then they came too close for turrets to track them efficiently. At that moment, their own fighters engaged the droid fighters. Skilled Alliance pilots were taking down one droid after another, combined together with Voidstar's cannons they thinned the numbers. After nothing more than few minutes, only the stragglers trying to fend off Alliance fighters remained. Droids had numbers and little more. When they took their numbers away, nothing more than poorly manoeuvring and lightly armoured drone remained.

Thyrus shifted his attention to crippled ship in front of Voidstar. They were closing in at steady pace.  
 _"Forward thrust, point eight-five. Two degrees incline."_ Thyrus adjusted their course and speed. They were flying slightly beneath their target. This allowed all dorsal batteries to fire at it unobstructed and they were currently doing so.  
 _"Tractor beam control, lock us onto that ship."_ he commanded.

 _"You can't pull in something that size."_ said Siri, not knowing what he was trying to accomplish.  
 _"I am not trying to."_ replied Thyrus, not breaking his stare on the ship.

They were close to one another now, only few dozen kilometres. In space combat that was practically collision distance.

 _"Cease firing. Transfer all weapon power to the engines. Full forward thrust."_ Thyrus ordered. Voidstar shot forward with acceleration of vessel half its size. They flew past the crippled ship.

 _"Engines, stop. Maximum inclination."_ Thyrus commanded.  
Nose of the Voidstar shot upward, then the entire ship shuddered. Voidstar was still connected to the other vessel with tractor beam, it was like a rope tying both ships together. It dragged the trade federation ship back and at the same time it slingshoted Voidstar around it, thanks to the combination their manoeuvres and relative weight of vessels.

In middle of the manoeuvre Voidstar found itself directly between the ship and the planet. At this point Thyrus ordered the drop pods and shuttles to launch. Drop pods fired off and Rendaran-class shuttles took off from the ventral hangar bay. Shielded from any incoming fire by the Voidstar itself, they carried troops to their assignments on the surface. Shuttles carried Cipher, Ranos, Galen and their respective teams while drop pods carried HK and skytroopers. Voidstar completed it slingshot and ended directly above Trade Federation ship upside down.

 _"Transfer power back to the weapons along with all engine power. Fire at will."_ ordered Thyrus, satisfied that his little gamble worked. Voidstar unleashed plasmatic hell. Her secondary batteries disintegrated the closest ship while main battery fired at the vessels locked in combat with her escorts. They didn't anticipate attack from this new direction and bolts flew past the weakened shields and tore away large chunks of hull. This weakened them and the escorts quickly finished them off.

Droid fighters suddenly found themselves out of reach of any central computer and deactivated. They were quickly dispatched by Alliance fighters. Afterwards the fleet regrouped and reorganized itself. All ships were mostly intact. Only Ravager reported slight superficial damage. Several fighters that were damaged landed in hangars for repairs. Few were lost, fortunately all pilots survived and were recovered by shuttles.

All ships formed around Voidstar. Thranta-class ships moved to outer perimeter facing away from the planet while Terminus-class ships remained close to Voidstar, inside the perimeter. They were facing the planet should the need for orbital bombardment arise. Voidstar herself was facing away from planet. Shattered remains of three ships floated peacefully in clouds of debris. This obscured the fleet from the rest of the blockade's view.

* * *

Shuttles dropped Cipher and his team at the outskirts of Theed. So far, everything went according to plan. Droid army was for unknown reason in middle of grasslands marching to swamps and the city was left with only a token of protection. Most of them were lured away by Galen and his attacks. Cipher had no idea how Ranos was faring but he believed it couldn't be much worse.

Cipher and his team weaved through the city like ghosts. Avoiding patrols and in some cases using them for cover. Blending into surroundings when they could and using stealth field generators when they couldn't. Soon they had the Palace in sight. Only a small force of droids and few tanks was present. Most of them were assembled on the courtyard.

They scaled the closest building and quickly crossed the roofs to the Palace. There were no guards up there, 'Sloppy' thought Cipher. Viceroy was last sighted in the throne room and that was where they would search for him. It should be on the fifth floor. Cipher counted the windows and after brief check with the plans he procured, during his earlier intel gathering, confirmed location of his target. Now was the time to make noise.

They fired grappling hooks above the window and over the gap between the last building and the palace. Being above their target helped. They checked their weapons and one after another confirmed their readiness. Cipher prepared his harness and bucked himself to the rope slung between buildings. He turned, nodded to the operative on his left and jumped.

As he was slinging from one building to another along with most of the team, the operative fired off wrist rocket. It flew past the Cipher and impacted the window, creating perfect entry point. Cipher hit the end of the rope, disconnected his harness and with roll ended in the building. He quickly swept the room for any enemies he might have missed and confirmed it was clear. He took cover near one of the two doors leading out of the room. After few seconds the last member of his team entered. The droids below didn't even react yet. They formed up two groups and set off to the throne room.

As they ran they encountered few battledroids but they quickly dispatched them. There was only a few of them because most of them was guarding the main entrance. One more turn and they would have the throne room in sight. When they approached, they were stopped by hail of blaster bolts. The first operative was hit by grazing shot and injured, but he was quickly pulled back into safety.

Cipher stuck his head out and glanced over the corner. They had the throne room in sight but they were cut off by at least dozen battledroids. He pulled his head back and few bolts impacted the place where he was seconds before. He signalled to his team using hand signals and one operative came forward. He crouched and pulled satchel of his back. He pulled out few EMP grenades and handed them to Cipher and two other operatives.

Cipher took the grenade and activated his shield probe. It instantly enveloped him in protective deflector field. He signalled to his team and rolled over into middle of the hallway. Two other operatives poked out and provided suppressive fire. Cipher stood and threw the grenades. As he was doing this, his field redirected few shots that impacted it, sending them into walls instead. When he ran out of grenades he jumped to the other side of the hallway, taking cover behind pillar.

His grenades had the desired effect, they disabled most of the firing droids. With much lighter fire coming at them, Cipher and his team piled out of cover. They dispatched still firing droids with few well-aimed shots and as they passed them, they destroyed the disabled droids too.

Unfortunately, doors to the throne room were closed shut during their shootout. Team assembled on both sides and prepared a breaching charge. Once it was in place and they were in safe distance, it was set off. Team stormed the room with Cipher in lead.

It looked like the Viceroy tried to escape but the other team cut him off. His guards were in firefight with second team and Viceroy himself was hiding behind the throne, shaking with fear. Operatives quickly destroyed the guards which found themselves caught in crossfire. Then they secured the room with the help of the second team. They closed the blast doors firmly shut and barricaded the breached entrance.

Cipher walked up to the Viceroy and shook his head, _"Well, well, well. What do we have here."  
_ Viceroy's hands shot upwards, his voice shaking, _"I surrender. I surrender."  
"I am sure you do."_ replied Cipher with smugness in his voice.

* * *

Master Ranos's mission went smoothly. They quickly overwhelmed guard droids at the largest detention camp and were in process of making sure the prisoners were all right. Combat medics were walking among the freed prisoners, checking their health. Few of the prisoners were from the security force and they grabbed fallen droid weapons and stood guard along with Alliance SpecForce squads on the perimeter.

Once they were sure that the prisoners were all right they set off in 'borrowed' speeders for another camp. But master Ranos stayed behind. The chiss Jedi ordered all squads but one to carry on their mission and she herself went with the squad to investigate strange feeling she had. It lead them to the main reactor of Theed. She walked on the walkway into the heart of massive room. Her squad went to secure the hangar on her orders.

Ranos closed her eyes and searched with the force. After a while she found what she was looking for.  
 _"I can sense you. You can't hide from me."_ she called out into the room. She sensed flare of anger in response to her statement.

Something impacted on the walkway behind her. Ranos opened her eyes and turned around. A young zabrak, dressed in black robes stood there. She looked up and assumed that he had to jump down from one of the higher walkways.

 _"Give up, sith. You can't win. Your blockade is broken, army in disarray. Your master exposed."_ Ranos tried to reason. But the zabrak didn't say anything, he simply ignited his double-bladed lightsabre. This would be a challenge.

Ranos shifted her footing and grabbed both her own lightsabres. She assumed traditional defensive posture and waited for zabrak to attack her. He leaped at her with ferocity that surprised her. His lightsabre cutting diagonally and aimed at her chest. She parried with her left hand and the strike was deflected into air. Trying to end this quickly she attacked with her right hand, aiming horizontally at his head. He saw it coming and intercepted it with his lightsabre. To her surprise he kicked her in midriff and sent her flying backwards.

She underestimated him, a mistake that would not repeat itself. She landed in crouch and saw him running to her. Defence was good but attack was better and she betted that his defence was weaker. She gathered her strength, used the Force to ease her pain, and charged at the zabrak. He didn't expect it and for a while was distracted. 'Perfect' she thought.

With quick succession she attacked with her lightsabres, one swift strike after another, trying not to give the zabrak time to rest and wear him down. Their weapons clashed repeatedly with blinding light and sparks were sent flying all around them. Zabrak was forced on defensive and had to act fast to parry her two sabres. This carried on for some time. Ranos attacking him with her two weapons and every time he struck back at her she simply jumped backwards out of his reach and then reengaged him.

Finally, she forced him to make a mistake. She attacked with both her weapons horizontally and he parried, but in doing so he swung his weapon too far from his body. She carried the momentum of her attack, lowered herself on one leg and with another swung and kicked his legs from beneath him. He landed on his back, air knocked out of his lungs, head dazed and his weapon rolling on the ground deactivated.

She immediately pushed herself upwards and, holding her lightsabres in reverse grip, impaled the place where he was lying moment before. Zabrak acted fast. Before she could kill him, he rolled to his side and grabbed his weapon. As she was crouching down with her weapons stabbed in the ground, he swung will all his strength horizontally at her head. She had no chance to bring her weapons up in time.

Ranos pushed herself away from the walkway and let go of her lightsabres. She leaped in mighty arc backwards, landing over a dozen meters away from zabrak, crouching. He stood between her and her weapons. He knew this. With dark side surging through him, he charged at her. She was slowly getting exhausted, she needed to end this fast.

Ranos gathered the Force around her and with wave of her hand sent ball of telekinetic energy at her attacker. He took the full force of her attack and it sent him flying backwards, until he impacted the force field behind him. He slid down on the ground, shaken and bleeding. Ranos stood up and attacked once more. This time her attack threw him through the force field and several others behind it. Overloaded emitters short-circuited and their sparking and discharging set the area in eerie glow.

Ranos walked up to her weapons and with the Force, called them to her hands. Then walked up to the zabrak. He stood up and was holding his ribs, backtracking from her slowly. He was bleeding from dozens of small cuts on his face and from his nose, his ribs must have been broken in attack.

She ignited her lightsabres and called to him, _"Surrender. You can't win."  
_ He only hissed back at her, exposing his teeth. They were bloodied and few of them were cracked.

With no other choice, she closed the distance in one force-imbued leap and attacked him again. This time his movements were much slower and at certain moments, he winced in pain. With one slash she severed his lightsabre in two and kicked him in the gut. He was thrown back few steps and tried to bring his one remaining blade to his defence.

Ranos didn't give him time to recover and attacked again. Her left lightsabre swung outwards and dragging the zabrak's weapon with it. Then she grabbed her other lightsabre in reverse grip and attacked the same way. He didn't manage to bring his sword back in time and she gutted him diagonally from right to left.

His hands dropped down and he stared at his wound in disbelief. He stumbled few steps back, then hit the edge and fell down the bottomless abyss. Ranos dropped to her knees exhausted, the fight took every bit of her strength and she simply didn't have the energy to stand. With sigh she lay on the ground and closed her eyes trying to recover what she had spent.

After few minutes, the SpecForce squad that followed her, came in looking for her. They found her in small room behind series of shattered force fields, lying on the ground. One of them briefly lighted his torchlight down the hole, in middle of the room, but he found nothing. Shaking her awake, two soldiers grabbed her under each arm and helped her stand. After that, she hung onto one soldier as they left the reactor room, still not fully trusting her legs.

* * *

Thyrus was pacing back and forth. He was powerless for now and he hated it. All he could do was wait for the ground teams to fulfil their parts.

He already received report that Ranos has engaged and killed the Sith assassin he fought on Tatooine, but it was given by SpecForce squad commander who accompanied her. She was still exhausted too much. Thyrus immediately ordered shuttle to pick her up and sent Scourge down on the planet, in case the assassin wasn't alone. He scolded himself for not seeing that possibility and that he didn't plan for it.

HK was doing fine. He and his skytroopers claimed quite a few battledroids. There was a brief incident on the bridge when HK requested orbital bombardment on the droid army.

 _"What! You can't!"_ suddenly cried out one of the handmaidens when she overheard the request.  
 _"And what do you want me to do? Sent my men down there to die, simply because of your idealism?"_ he retorted angrily.  
 _"I will not risk the lives of those under my command and approach the enemy with tenderness so that you can satiate your conscience."_ he bit back on the handmaiden.

She was seething with anger and almost did something stupid. But Alliance guards that watched their guests since their arrival acted fast and restrained the handmaiden. This, surprisingly, brought strong reaction from the queen and the rest of the handmaidens. Situation deteriorated to the point where both his and queen's guards were in a standoff. Only because he ordered the handmaiden released he prevented any harsher actions. She was still seething with anger and glaring at him.

He may have had alienated the queen but it didn't weigh heavily on his conscience. The lives of his subordinates came first, even those like HK. Even with this accident, he ordered Ravager and Vindicator to open fire.

Pinpoint accuracy of the bombardment obliterated the core of Trade Federation army in the plains and meadows. Even the damage to the surrounding terrain wasn't that bad. Thyrus estimated that it could be cleaned up within few days of work. It was awkwardly quiet on the bridge afterwards. Where before they asked irritating amount of questions about the proceeding of ground operations, now they were all quiet.

He studied them for a while, it looked like the senators understood his actions and perhaps even agreed with them. The Jedi were harder to read, they might have not liked his course of action but he could feel their admiration for his dedication to his subordinates. The queen, that after a bit of probing with the force, surprisingly proved to be the angry handmaiden, was despising him and he could sense that in her mind was cursing him heavily.

After what seemed like eternity, but in fact was nothing more than fifteen minutes since the incident. Hologram sprung to life.  
Cipher reported in, _"Mission successful. VIP secured."  
_ The projection switched from him to the Viceroy.  
 _"Viceroy, finally I get to see your face."_ said Thyrus.  
 _"Don't be so happy. You will be destroyed by my ships very soon."_ Viceroy tried to sound defiant, but Thyrus could easily see past the façade.  
 _"That will not be happening any time soon. I am afraid. You should give us your overriding command codes. It would be better for everyone."_ Thyrus tried negotiating.  
 _"Never."_ bit Viceroy, still trying to sound strong and defiant.  
 _"As you wish. We have nothing more to discuss."_ finished Thyrus and the projection switched back to Cipher.

 _"Cipher."_ said Thyrus with steely gaze.  
 _"Yes, commander."_ replied Cipher.  
 _"Bring him to Voidstar for questioning, we need those codes. Rest of the blockade is amassing and I would rather avoid further confrontation."_ ordered Thyrus.  
 _"Understood."_ replied Cipher, his eyes studying Thyrus closely.  
 _"Cutting connection to prevent signal interception."_ said Thyrus, his gaze unflinching from the hologram of Cipher. Then he turned to the communications officer and nodded. Before the hologram vanished, he could see understanding in Cipher's eyes.

Thyrus looked behind him. It didn't look like his guests caught the hidden meaning of his words and took them at face value. Short while after, communications officer informed him, _"Receiving communication from the surface."_

Thyrus looked at his screen. Cipher sent him text message. It contained a long set of digits and letters, a code.  
 _"Broadcast on all frequencies."_ he ordered.  
 _"Broadcasting."_ replied communications officer.

 _"Report."_ Thyrus asked.  
 _"All Trade Federation vessels are powering down. Droids on surface are deactivating."_ replied sensor officer  
 _"All wings, target and destroy the bridges of the blockading ships."_ commanded Thyrus.

 _"Why? They aren't threat anymore."_ cried out Adi Gallia.  
 _"This is only temporary, they will retake control of their ships and we will be right where we began."_ countered Kyrhene and Thyrus nodded in agreement.  
 _"You can't know that."_ said Siri, her voice raised.  
 _"The probability of it is too high to not react to it accordingly."_ explained Thyrus, his voice firm.

Surprisingly, the senator from Kashyyyk agreed with him. Saying something along the lines that wounded beast is much more dangerous.

 _"Exactly."_ said Thyrus, nodding in gratitude towards said senator.  
That was the end of discussion as the fighters carried their orders and the bridges of seven Trade Federation ships were nothing more than smoking wreckage. 'Cut off the head and the body dies' was the old saying.

With the battle over, Thyrus ordered engineers and relief teams to the planet. They would help civilians a bit with getting their life back on track.

Queen and her entourage left shortly after, probably not just to get away from him but to see the damage inflicted on her planet as well. He knew she would be surprised how little her planet was damaged by his troops. Federation did much more damage with their improvised camps and military hardware.

Still, entire meadow littered with wreckage fused together by the energy of bombardment was not a pleasant sight. But he knew that only collateral damage in that action was slight alteration of landscape that could be reversed. The Jedi and Senators left with the queen, wanting to see the planet for themselves. In meantime he ordered his ships to stabilise orbits of the debris with tractor beams and collection of any of their own damaged or destroyed equipment. He didn't need to worry about bodies because they, surprisingly, didn't lose anyone.

Without the knowledge of anyone on Naboo, Thyrus slowly pulled out his troops, but still maintained the illusion of their presence. In the evening he invited the senators to his ship for discussion and they agreed. They unknowingly boarded the shuttle with last remaining Alliance troops and left for Voidstar. He and his fleet were gone before the four Jedi noticed.

* * *

The Jedi noticed his departure when his ships jumped away but it was too late to stop or follow him. The senators reappeared two days later on Coruscant as if nothing happened and gave their report to the Senate. They claimed that the ships were damaged in the fight and that the army was slowly dissolving, having lost everything they fought for. In the end they convinced the Senate that no action was needed regarding the fleet or its commander.

This went against everything the Jedi present there felt and it confused High Council greatly. When the council tried to question the two senators, they failed to gain any new information.

Within few months, rumours began spreading throughout outer rim about ships being miraculously saved from pirates and slaves being freed. On several worlds, criminals appeared with incriminating evidence on stations of local security forces. Corrupt politicians and high-ranking bureaucrats were exposed by anonymous tips here and there. The former Viceroy, Nute Gunray, was gone, vanishing without any trace however.

High Council had their suspicions but couldn't prove any of them. They couldn't even find the fleet itself.

* * *

One day, in the evening, High Council was debating the recent rumours about certain cult appearing on Nar Shadaa when their lights switched off without warning.  
 _"What is going on."_ master Windu demanded to know.

Blueish hologram appeared in middle of the room, clear to see in the darkened atmosphere of the room.  
It took form of Thyrus, dressed in his Jedi armour.

 _"You have some explaining to do, you…"_ said master Gallia. But was waved away by the hologram.  
 _"This is just a recorded message I am leaving for you. No need to ask questions. It won't answer them."_ said hologram, smiling almost laughing.  
 _"I know that we haven't ended on the friendliest terms, but no matter what you think, I have no intentions to harm you or the Republic. Quite the opposite in fact."_ started the hologram and council was listening.  
 _"I have been brought here by the Force for a reason I don't yet understand. But what I see of your time saddens me greatly."_ stated hologram with pained expression on face and psychical pain in voice.  
 _"I know that the democracy isn't perfect but I have seen what the Republic is capable of. And I will do everything in my power to bring that glory back."_ hologram continued with almost dreaming expression.

 _"I know you are searching for me. Don't. If something wrong happens we'll contact you. You need not fear us because we are going to fulfil the work you are supposed to do and for some reason don't. I will not ask why you are neglecting it and instead you are on beck and call of Senate."_ said hologram. This irritated few members but they remained silent.

 _"So, we will be out there, looking out for the little guy and doing the work Jedi Order is supposed to do. Oh, one last thing."_ said hologram with a smirk and leaned forward.  
 _"I have taken the liberty of taking back my friend's holocron, I hope you don't mind. In return, I have downloaded complete historical data we had from our computers into your archives. It is not much but it is all I can give, for now."_ hologram stated. Madame Jocasta would go mad learning of it.

 _"And also, that girl, Etain. My friend chose her for a reason and I would be fool to disregard her wisdom. It may have been a while since I have trained a Padawan but I will do my best, protect her with my life and teach her what I know. I talked to her and she agreed, so I am simply informing you. Farewell."_ ended the hologram with formal bow and lights returned to normal.

Council sent for the initiate but she was nowhere to be found. They studied their temple security logs carefully but only sighting of Thyrus was when he stood in front of her doors knocking and then entering, nothing more not even their leaving. The archives showed no signs of tampering, unless you viewed millennia worth of history as a sign.

High Council was still divided when it came to him. Few, like Yoda Plo Koon and Yaddle, wanted to let him be and simply watch him from the side-lines. Others, led by Windu, wanted him to be answerable to the Council for his actions. But in the end, they were forced to watch because they couldn't simply find him. They agreed to try to infiltrate the cult on Nar Shadaa and some hoped that it would lead them to Thyrus and his hideout.

* * *

 **AN: Enjoy the new chapter. Following chapters can be expected more or less Monthly. Sometimes less.  
** **You can guess who will be one of his allies from his tactics if you know EU well enough.**

 **BOBAN094: I will try to work on my conversations  
SMASTER28: I have answered in PM already but I hope that the piece about the senators gave you bit of insight into his intentions.**


End file.
